Happy Birthday, Ezri!

...a few days late.  She was very sick on her birthday and for the days afterwards.  Today, we headed over this afternoon to celebrate with her Baby Sharks cake.

She blew the candles out as Jessica was putting the cake on the table so we had to relite them so we could get the traditional "blowing out the candles" photo.

These are the baby shark family which had been on her cake.

She was excited to finally celebrate her birthday and loved her presents as well. It is fun to finally have your birthday when you are the "last" in the year to celebrate.
 

Jena's December

Jena is involved in two different performing groups--a dance class and a theatre class and December is the time for Christmas performances which includes extra practices and dress rehearsals.  If you know Jena, you know she lives for this stuff--the costumes, the practices, and performing and the wonderful friends and teachers she works with. We and (Jena) are blessed because of their service.

First it was a performance of her dance class on the first Saturday of December.  They danced at a retirement home in Bountiful....

Her group plus her teacher Mya

They danced to a number from The Grinch.  It was darling.

She then attended a dress rehearsal for her theatre group in Centerpointe and then we headed south to Sandy to their performance at the Festival of Trees (a famous fundraiser for Primary Children's Hospital).

As usual, the Christmas trees on display are incredible.  We took a picture of this Snoopy tree for our friend, Sister Jones, who is a big fan.

So many trees.......

Then the following Friday evening, Saturday morning, and tomorrow night, Jena is performing with her Friend to Friend group at Centerpointe Theatre.

posing by their tree before her first performance

The show was called "Light of Christmas" and feature many songs from Siamese Street.  It was a fun performance which made you laugh (and also cry those happy tears).

Jena was an angel in the Nativity scene.

They did a darling act from the 12 days of Christmas.  Jena's friend Maddie was the partridge in the pear tree.  She did awesome.

Jena also had a line during a section where they were talking about kindness.  Her line was:  Kindness is magic.  She did it perfectly--right on time.

This was the cutest song about the broken bell on Santa's sleigh that went 'Bong" instead of ding a ling.  The junior class did just a cute job of making silly poses to represent the "bong."  Loved it.

After the Saturday performance, we headed to the Christmas/cast party at a local church.

And from that party, Jena changed clothes and we headed to Davis Lanes for the first day of Special Olympics bowling.  This was the first time that she has seen most of her Comet Team members and she loved it.  Parents and friends were coming over and telling her how much they had missed her.  She told me about half way through "It is just like old times."  She loves this sweet Special Olympic family as we do, too.

And she did pretty good for her first day back and with three games of bowling which she hasn't done since 2019.  She got an 88, 115, and 90.

Despite the craziness of not being settled into our house, Jena has done great and she finds great joy in these activities and the people she interacts with. And tomorrow, she will have their last performance and then head back for her YSA Christmas Party.  So more fun times ahead.

Student(s) of the Month

About a month ago, Jessica invited me to the "Student of the Month" assembly as Zander was getting that award for his second grade class.  His was at 8:30 am.  Then a week before the assembly, she notified me that Liam's teacher had reached out to let them know that Liam was getting the same award in his class.  His assembly was at 9:15.  So, it became a two for one deal--I thought that was great that it worked out that way.

It was also pajama day at school--not sure if that is the look you want to see in your photos as a teenager, but makes it a unique photo op for grandmas.

The boys did not know beforehand so they wondered why we were all there sitting in the chairs at the back of the room with other parents.  They are new enough in the school to not know all of the routines.  They were happy to see us and happy to get the student of the month for their class.

Just one of the fun moments when you live by some of your grandkids!  I know that Niki and Cooper have gotten "SOAR" awards in their schools and Scarlett and James have gotten similar things as well.  For the most part, our grandkids like school and that is a good thing since it is basically their "job" as American kids.  I loved school (usually) and would probably go to school for the rest of my life if it was practical and I didn't have other things to do. I am sure there are a few more school classes in my future.  I have a list.....
 

"My" Remodel

I told Gary that while we are remodeling the house, apparently I also need to be "remodeled."  He assured me that it was the worth the expense and he didn't just want to "trade me in for a new younger model."

On December 3, I had the cataract removed from my right eye and will have the left eye done tomorrow.  People told me that it will be amazing how much colors change.  I was doubtful because I didn't really notice the colors changes.  For me, it was seeing in the dark and especially while driving that was getting harder and harder.  However, people were right.  Colors are so much brighter and intense that before.  Even my eye drops were a bright yellow--I had thought they were basically yellow-tinted.  Crazy.  I guess that changed so slowly and didn't impact life in the same way as the dark problems.  We chose to do the new transition type of replacement lens and it is remarkable how clear I can see with that eye.

Currently I am wearing my glasses with the right lens removed so that my left eye still gets correction.  By the end of the day, it is more likely that my left eye is tired, rather than my right eye.  As my doctor pointed out, it is a bit tricky for one eye to be corrected at the lens and the other one to use the glasses a inch away from the eye.

When you have cataract surgery, they do not put you a sleep.  I was not excited about the thought of that, but decided if millions of people could do it every year, I could manage it as well.  It was actually quite remarkable.  The untreated eye is covered, but all you can see in the other eye is bright lights.  They give you some medication to make you relax and not care---I had had something similar years ago in IVF treatment, but it left me with a feeling of being loopy.  This medication didn't leave any sense of anything. I remember thinking during the surgery that I could move or do whatever I want, but I didn't need to do anything, but lay there and breath.  I could hear them talking and the doctor would give me little updates along the way, but it was just a peaceful odd experience. Afterwards I didn't feel any side effects at all and Gary was disappointed that I didn't do anything silly he could report to the kids.  The whole surgery takes about 15 minutes.

It will be nice to get the other eye done tomorrow.

Then I went to the dentist for a checkup and cleaning and there is a whole other set of stuff going on with my gums and my teeth that need to be fixed.  One old crown needed to be replaced (half way through that process right now) and another tooth will need to be replaced (we knew it would need to be done eventually).  So, in January, I go in for more "repair work".

And I haven't even done my hearing checked yet. Unfortunately will probably some sort of reno for my hearing as well. Getting old has its disadvantages.