Five for Friday

1. Milo is coaching Nathan's basketball team this year. He's had some help from a couple dads and it has helped keep these 8 and 9 year old boys entertained during practice. Last Saturday was our first game and it went so much better than I thought it would. This is a 2nd/3rd grade team with over half of the team playing for the first time and they did a great job. Nathan made two baskets and had a few steals. He was fired up to run to the other end of the court, if only I could get him to move that fast before school.

2. I went to the eye doctor this week. I haven't been in 3 years so I was definitely overdue. They took pictures of my eyes and the doctor mentioned how healthy they looked. Just perfect, no signs of aging in the macula or something close to that. Then he got up in my face like eye doctors do and moved my eyelids around and asked if I suffered from allergies. All of the sudden I felt on the spot, like I needed to know the right answer.

'Uh, no. No allegies'.
'Oh', he says. 'You have very floppy (I quote!) eyelids. Do you snore? Suffer from sleep apnea?'
'No, neither.'
'Large men commonly have sleep apnea and floppy eyelids can be a symptom. Like your eyelids have been blown up over and over like a balloon and then there is no elasticity left. Yours are loose, on the droopy side.'

I kid you not! Thanks for at least telling my my eye's aren't aging....that's one thing, sheesh. Add eyelids to my self conscious list.

3. Tonight was our Pinewood Derby. I was dreading it big time. Last year it went forever and Reed was an absolute beast. Plus we were new in our ward and I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb. 'Look, there's the new girl, she can't control her two year old.' It was awful. I have to say it was 100% turnaround. They had a round robin set up, there were 40 races and they were done in one hour flat. Love it.

Nathan had an ultra thin car this year (that he raced backwards on this run). Milo had a minor hiccup in cutting the car out but was successful in selling the new shape to Nate, thank heavens. He was happy with it and so excited for tonight. He chose blue for the paint color and we put a deck stripe of reflector tape down the middle. Over all he came in 5th place (out of 20 boys racing) and that is a huge step up from last year. Milo can't wait, next year he gets to 'help' make 2 cars. My amazing friend let Reed come and play at her house, he would have been a nightmare that time of night. I owe her big time!

4. We finally bought a freezer for the garage today. We used to have a small freezer that was great for extra room but once it died a few years ago, we never replaced it. I've pretty much become the master at fitting anything we buy into our fridge freezer but have only been able to stock up minimally. No more, yay. We took some Christmas money and found one at Costco we liked. It's bigger than our last one, not huge but for now and in this house, it's perfect. Finally, I can fill it when there is a sale and know there's a place to put it all. I was tempted to buy a new entertainment center instead (why does Costco do that to me??) but stayed focused and went with the freezer.

5. I'm starting to put together my 'station' for Early Childhood Literacy for our stake RS convention. Jane suggested Radical Reflections by Mem Fox and our library doesn't even carry it. But while I was looking I found a different book by the same author. It's called Reading Magic. On the cover it says, 'Why reading aloud to our children will change their lives forever'. It's full of great information and I really do believe in reading aloud to the kids. Still, if you have any thoughts on the subject, share them. I'm not in panic mode yet but it's on the horizon.