February was an eventful month as well. We started the month off with Logan's 11th birthday on February 1st. He wanted a Harry Potter birthday party with all of his friends because he is really into the Harry Potter books right now.
It was also perfect because Harry was 11 years old when he was accepted into Hogwarts School and began is wizarding journey. All of the kids had a blast at the party. You can read more about it from Logan's point of view in his post about his birthday. I think it is cool he wanted to write his own entry and actually I like it better than the things I could have written so I will probably start having the kids write their own things from now on.
Later Charlotte and her friend Everett decided to have their own party. They originally wanted to have a sleepover but I said they couldn't do that. So they decided on a movie night instead.
They popped popcorn, had Red Vines, and watched Sonic. Maverick and Brooklyn even joined them and they had a great time. I'm glad these kids are friends.
So I kind of had a mid-life crisis thing with some of the things I have been a part of lately. I just have been feeling very unappreciated and used and, I don't know, just kind of kicked to the curd with the PTA this year. I have really had to re-evaluate my purpose and step back because I was feeling abused by the whole situation. Now when I get this way, I have to just get away from everything and everyone. After a really stressful meeting with the PTA one day, I just had to go for a run. I strapped Brooklyn in the jogging stroller and just took off. I had so much pent up anger inside of me that I was just sprinting! I couldn't even concentrate on my audiobook because my brain was just screaming in my head. I finally turned off my head phones and let my head just let it out. It was probably good I had the stroller to slow me down a little bit or I probably would have ran too hard because the adrenaline was just rushing. When I got home, I felt so much better. It was good to relieve all of that stress and anger doing something because I seriously felt like a caged animal. I finally decided to step away from the PTA Board and just be involved in a small part next year.
Well because of this little mid life crisis, I knew I needed to do something to get away. My friends, Trista and Heidi, had been talking about hiking the Rim 2 Rim in the Grand Canyon for a while now so I called them up and said "We're going! Set the date!" They were both kind of like okay lets do it! The only thing I wanted to do just then was be away from all civilization and testing my limits and I thought this was a perfect way to do it. This hike is 26 miles and would take all day. Perfect.
I knew I needed to start preparing right away for this excursion because we were going in June. So we brought out the snowshoes for the first time this winter and went for a hike.
We decided to try out a trail in Sardine Canyon. This trail leads up to the Wellsville Ridge but of course because of the snow, we didn't go that far. The trail was pretty well groomed so that made it a little easier to hike around.
Instead of taking the trail to the Wellsville Ridge we just followed the utility road up around the side of the mountain. The Rattlesnake Trail (which is the trail to the Wellsville Ridge) was closed anyway for the winter. We followed the road up the hill for about a mile. It was an amazing view from the top where we stopped. We could see all of Sardine Canyon and watch the road and cars snake their way through the canyon.
It was a beautiful sunny day so that made the views even better. By the time we got a mile in though it was getting late and we knew the sun would be going down soon. We decided to head back down the hill to the van. Going back was much easier and faster.
I love snowshoeing. It is so nice to get out in the woods and just explore even though it is snowy. This was also a perfect way for me to realize what is important in life and not worry so much about the unimportant things. It was also a great first training hike for the Rim 2 Rim!
Also this month the choir put on a concert with the high school choir. Logan loves singing in the choir and especially liked singing with the older kids.
On Valentine's Day, Emily had a "Gal"entine's Day party with her Young Women group. They ate ice cream, played games and just had a blast together. I am glad she has these girls as her friends.
On February 16 we headed back down to St. George for the Red Cliffs Temple Open House.
This temple is in the Washington Fields and is so beautiful. I loved the purple color scheme inside the temple because it gave it a royal feel. I especially loved the Celestial Room in this temple. It was so bright and there was definitely a good spirit there. I love taking the kids through these temple open houses because it is amazing to show them the importance of the temple and the beauty and Spirit that can be found there. I hope this is instilling in them the desire to go to the temple when they get older.
I have been debating on getting LASIK surgery on my eyes for a while now but never really dared go through with it. Russell had LASIK done a few years ago and has loved the results and loved being able to see without glasses or contacts. I have wanted to do it but thought my eyes were not really bad enough to get it done. Well when Charlotte knocked my glasses over the side of the cruise ship, I took that as a sign that I needed to get rid of my glasses and get the surgery done. So we scheduled the consultation to see if I was a good candidate for the surgery. It turned out I did qualify for the surgery so we set the date. I was concerned about the surgery though because my eye doctor said I might have to get PRK surgery instead of LASIK because I have had problems with dry eyes and corneal membrane issues ever since going through chemotherapy. I told the specialists this but they said I would be fine.
On February 23, I had LASIK Surgery done to fix my vision! Before going into the surgery, I took this picture while on my run. I figured if something went wrong and I went blind, this would be the last thing I would see.
The surgery went pretty well. I was awake the whole time so I could see what they were doing to my eyes. At one point when they took the lens off my eye to do the laser or whatever they do to fix my eye, everything did go black but it was only for a second or two and then they put the lens back on and I could see again. They did that for each eye so I was blind for a few seconds twice. The only issue they had was on my right eye the suction didn't hold right so they had to suction it on twice. The most painful part of the whole surgery was getting the suction thing onto my eye so it was unfortunate they didn't get it on the first time. The second time worked though so that was good. The whole procedure took about 10-15 minutes so it was pretty quick. After that I was sent home with these awesome sunglasses that I had to wear all day and night for the next week. I had to try and keep my eyes closed for most of the day that first day so they could heal and they were really sensitive to the light hence the sunglasses.
The next morning, I went to my eye doctor for a follow up to see how everything was healing. He said the left eye looked great but the right eye had a ripple in it and was not healing because each time I blinked it would kind of open it back up. I could tell this was true because the vision was still quite blurry in that eye and it was more sensitive than the left eye. I thought "Oh great, instead of making my eyesight better, I made it worse..." Dr. Smith called the surgeon in Ogden and sent me straight back done there to have him look at it. They decided that the right eye just needed a little more time and care to heal properly but that it would heal and I would be fine. The surgeon put a bandage contact on that eye so that it could heal without being bugged every time I blinked. They also had me start sodium eye drops to smooth out the bubble on my eye. It has been a slow process healing my eyes but it is also amazing to be able to see without glasses! Even though I do have to kind of baby my right eye a little bit right now, my vision is so much better so that is all worth it. I can see the trees on the Wellsville mountains from my kitchen window now! I couldn't even do that when I had my glasses on before. Modern medicine and technology is amazing!!
February has been a great month.
