Three Things Thursday ...

Resting - I'm seven days into my medically imposed 10 day rest period and surprisingly, I'm not mad about it. It hasn't been all that bad and I have accomplished quite a bit, much of which would have just added stress to a jam-packed schedule. Really, I'm just trying to be zen about the whole thing.

Unfortunately, during this rest period I have developed some crazy hip pain. Prior to starting this medication, I had some soreness/tightness in my SI joint and hip flexor for about two weeks. I went to the Witch Doctor, he did some ART magic on it and I thought it was getting better.

Not the case.

My SI doesn't feel super agitated, but a three inch band around my entire hip (from groin to buttocks) is sore, especially when it has pressure applied to it, which makes both sitting and lying down uncomfortable. And since yesterday, I have had random pain/tightness radiating down the back and side of my leg. I'm not sure if this is a side effect of the medication I am on, which can cause joint pain and tendon rupture, but honestly, if I wasn't forced to rest, I wouldn't be running or biking anyway. And that says a lot considering my OCD tendencies.

Fortunately, I don't really need to ramp up my training until January 1 or even mid-January to prepare for my next race, so I'm not totally stressing. And I'm not about to injure myself, so I may be chillaxing for a while ...

Glasses - J and I have passed on some fabulous traits to our girls. Doodle and Dilly got some wicked athletic skills and are, um, abnormally tall for their ages. Dizzle has the singing voice of an angel (not entirely sure where she got that, but I am taking credit) and the running form of Ryan Hall. From all current indications, we passed along our Ivy League brains and our large jaws, hopefully setting them up to be brace-free children.

Sadly though, we also gave them our eyesight. All of their grandparents, aunts, uncles and of course, J and I, wear glasses. Thus, we've always know that in the future, they would most likely suffer the same fate.

Anyway, two weeks ago, J and I visited a new eye doctor. She asked me if the girls had ever visited an eye doctor. I told her no, but they had all passed the vision screening at their pediatrician. She, in turn, told me that while that was great, some children can pass the vision screening even if they have a hard time seeing, since like adults, once you can recognize letters, you can often decipher what's on the chart even if it's not completely clear.

*me banging head against wall*

She went on to tell me that it's also good to get a baseline of their vision and eye health before eye development stops at around age 9 and that she recommends that children have their first screen around age 3.

Oops.

Her little speech sold me and I set up appointments for the girls.

Dilly went first. She passed the vision screen with flying colors. 20/30 in each eye and 20/25 when combined. Her eye health is right as it should be and we even learned that she was born with "snowflakes" on both eyes, otherwise known as congenital cataracts. Basically, they are cloudy spots on her eye (that look like snowflakes). She was born with them, they will never grow or change and she doesn't see them in her field of vision. Also, they are very rare, which makes her kind of epic.

Dizzle was up next. When she sat in the chair the doctor asked her if she felt like she had any issues seeing. Dizzle responded, "No. I see great."

Then the testing started. Within 10 seconds, I knew we had a problem. She could only read the second line down, and she missed some of the letters. Crap. She continued on and continued to have issues reading the screen. Upon completion, the doctor turned to me and said exactly what I knew was coming.

Dizzle is rather farsighted for someone her age and the correction she needs warrants her getting glasses.

Awesome. The kicker is, I constantly ask this kid if she has any issues seeing and she always says no. And to her, she probably doesn't, it's likely that she has always had some degree of farsightedness and it's just what she is used to. However, I probably should have suspected something was up, as she is the clumsiest child I know.

Hopefully, in a week when she gets these, she'll gain some coordination.

Dizzle's new specs ...

Finally, Doodle jumped in the chair, where she proceeded to TRY to fail the eye exam. She was reading things out of order, backwards and from the wrong row. She was squirming and fidgeting and stalling. It was completely obvious to me what she was trying to do and the doctor had caught on too. Dizzle, Dilly and I were asked to leave so Doodle could focus.

A few minutes later, they came out of the exam room and the doctor told me that while Mackenzie does have a slight vision problem, her prescription is light enough that she can get by without it for now. She added that it's quite likely that once she starts reading more and the type gets smaller, she will likely want and need to get glasses.

Good news, right? Wrong.

Doodle proceeded to throw a fit and cry the rest of the way home because she didn't need glasses. Seriously, who does that?

Christmas Lights - Like I've mentioned, I'm a bit of a scrooge when it comes to Christmas. My grinch-like persona is aided by the fact that we don't have any plugs on the outside of our house making it impossible for us to create a festive landscape. Some of our fellow Virginians, do not have this issue and they more than make up for the rest of us.

Last weekend, J and I took the girls on a tour around on a Tacky Lights Tour. This house was my favorite, but not even the most extreme.

Kind of makes you feel like a slacker, doesn't it?