Sunday, November 30, 2008

Eye Doctors, Malls, and Black Friday crowds

I had another brilliant, well thought out scheme the other day. Two of my children were sent home with the "your child failed our vision screening test, how could you not know they were blind?" note. The third already wears glasses, just had them replaced two months ago, and was kind enough to tell us the NEXT DAY he sees much better when he wears his prescription sports goggles and regular glasses together. Anyhow, it only took being knocked in the head a couple hundred times before I realized I needed to make some eye appointments.


For some odd reason, I kept avoiding making the call. Could it be the thought of sitting with 6 kids in a tiny waiting room for hours doesn't sound like fun? Perhaps I dread finding out I need to spend a small fortune on accessories that I will then have to monitor constantly (where are your glasses?), fix (I just need to screw that in tighter), and replace (I mean it, WHERE ARE YOUR GLASSES?). Probably I'm just the master of procrastination. For whatever reason, I kept putting off making the call until guilt, and Kirsti's constant reminder that she can't see, finally got the better of me.


I took the 1st available appointment. 4 of them in a row (if I need to do the other 3 kids in school, I might as well do 1 more). For the Friday after Thanksgiving. Did I mention our eye doctor is in the MALL and it was BLACK FRIDAY? Yep, I am the well-thought-out-plan-making guru. Some might say this was punishment for not Black Friday shopping for the first time in years.


So I loaded up the kids and got there early so we could make the 4 mile trek through the parking lot. We arrived at 2:45 for our appointments starting at 3. We left the mall at 7:30. With the exception of 1/2 hour at the end, spent getting pretzels and walking around waiting for the glasses, it was all spent in a waiting room the size of my closet. Jealous?


Although gratefully, Matthew slept the 1st two hours in his stroller, the receptionist happened to have the American Girl movie for them to watch, I had them bring in books and coloring things and, thankfully, they all decided to be pretty well behaved most of the time. It could have been much, much worse.

Oh, and Ryan's prescription had doubled (which is why he saw better wearing two sets of glasses), Kirsti and Elise need to wear theirs all the time except when reading or on the computer, and Ethan got a clean bill of health.


And during the "extra" 1/2 hour I found a store with a great deal. Buy one get one free on everything AND spend $50 get $40 in gift cards. I would tell you where I bought the girls an outfit, but I'm embarrassed that I shopped somewhere so expensive (even if I did get a deal). You will just be LIMITED TOO your imagination.


Here are my kiddos with their brand new glasses. Sorry for the glare, I was a little tired.

9 comments:

  1. At least it was Kirsti and Elise needing glasses and not Joseph or Matthew! My poor friend had to get them for her almost 3 year old. Not only that, but he has to wear a patch for 2 hours a day! The kids all look really great though!

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  2. Yikes! It reminds me of the time last winter I took my 4 kids with me to get snow tires on my car. They got the van up, removed the old tires, and then discovered they DIDN'T HAVE any snowtires the right size! We sat in the filthy tire shop for 4 hours while they sent someone to check their stores in Murray, Salt Lake, and eventually found a set in Bountiful. Luckily, they gave us $200 in incentives because of the ridiculous wait.

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  3. I hate dragging two kids around, I can't imagine 6. You are a saint. To bad your kids have the bad eye gene. I know how horrible it is. Hopefully my boys won't get it.

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  4. Oh and I love Ryan's "blue steel" look.

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  5. Holy Smokes!! That is a long time. I think I would have been pretty irritated at the end of that visit! I spent over 30 minutes waiting in the pediatrician's office last week and I wasn't a happy camper. I have better things to do than to wait in a ...waiting room for a doctor (or anyone for that matter) who has over-scheduled.

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  6. Kirsti is so cute in glasses. The girls hair is getting long again. I really like Ryan's glasses. They are very sharp looking.

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  7. What a bunch of little smarty pants. Come on, you don't like going to the mall on Black Friday with all your kids? What's wrong with you?

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  8. They look great, but I don't know if it was worth everything it took to get them there... Sounds pretty crazy to me!

    I love Limited Too. I can't wait for Addie to be big enough to wear their clothes.

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  9. I cannot imagine how ur Friday was. Though ur kids sure looked cute and well behaved!

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