Odds & Ends

I am sitting on the light olive green chair in my room, listening to my two little nieces fall asleep. Evidently this entails flipping the light switch on and off, paging through multiple picture books, and occasionally jabbering to each other.

I became an aunt of 11 last night. My brother, Tate, had his first boy. Milo Tate was born in the early morning. Milo is also the firstborn male in the next Kaiser generation, so is responsible for carrying on our Kaiser family name. No pressure, Milo.

He is very cute! This is one of the first births of my sisters I have not actually been present at the hospital when it took place. Dating back to Noah (my very first nephew, born 10 years ago!) I have always been there when one of my siblings would walk proudly into the waiting room and announce the name.

Our family is a little crazy about babies being born. It's kind of a production. In fact, when my last niece, Sylvia, was born, we all stayed overnight in the hospital. I'm not even kidding. I was up all night. And all morning until she was born.

Anyway, last night I happened to be at my third shift job when my sister-in-law went into labor, so I had no choice but to stay put. I received a phone called at 2am telling me he was born, and a picture text message not too far after. He is a cutie!

So my brother is a proud daddy to 3 now. I went into a mild panic mode last night as I lay awake, thanking the Lord for a healthy baby boy. I thought... OK. To my knowledge, all of my siblings have completed their families. And I haven't even started mine!

But it's alright. God has a plan, no doubt!

In other news, I think I have a mild eye infection. And by mild I mean, it's been going on for 6 months but hasn't bothered me enough to go to the eye doctor. And by hasn't bothered me enough, I mean I don't want to call the eye doctor because I know what they'll tell me. They'll tell me I am allergic to my contacts and I must wear my glasses, and I must NOT wear my contacts, and I must put eye drops in my eyes for a week or so.

Unfortunately: 1) My vision decreases by about 40% when I put my glasses on and 2) On most days, my main job requires that I can see well. For instance, I'm shooting a wedding this weekend. How can I shoot a wedding half blind?

So, I took matters into my own hands and have been wearing my glasses for the past day and a half. But tonight I finally broke and put my contacts back in. It's seriously torture. I'm not sure what happened to my eyesight but somehow, over the years, it has really declined. If I take everything off, I can literally see nothing but shapes and colors. It's all a blur. I am severely near-sighted and can't read anything unless it's literally 2 inches from my face.

But I won't complain, because I'm thankful I have vision at all. I could be blind, and then where would I be? I'm such a visual person. I'm a visual learner, and without my vision, I wouldn't have my job, which I have a huge passion for. In fact, thinking about losing my vision almost makes me claustrophobic. So I'll stop thinking about it now, but I wanted to go there long enough to realize a reason to be thankful rather than discouraged about this matter.

Conclusion: I'll probably call the eye doctor tomorrow. Mainly because I also found out today that I'm almost out of contact lenses.

Also. One other discovery. Those who know me know that I love to eat, and I eat often. It's really a hobby of mine. Everyday from the hours of 3-5pm, I hit a stage where I am ravenous. It's too early for dinner, but I still feel a need to tie myself over. So, I will feature the snack that I fix. It does the trick every time. I believe I shared this tasty treat with you all in the recent past, but it's worthy of reiteration.

Ingredients:

frozen strawberries

Greek yogurt (protein-rich) (vanilla or strawberry-flavored)

Skim milk

Peanut butter

Combine all ingredients in blender. Add more milk for a thinner smoothie; more yogurt or fruit to thicken.

Add some granola and blend that into the smoothie. Pour the smoothie into a glass and top with sliced bananas.

I'm telling you-- if you love peanut butter and/or fruit, this is a great treat and a healthy snack!

Ok, that's all for tonight. I have to go to work. It's kind of crazy when I think about it... I put in a 40+ hour week last week, and I'll be going on 40+ hours this week at my 3rd shift job. That's on top of my daytime job at Imagine Artists, as well as my part-time church website job. But let me define "3rd shift job" for you... in a nutshell, I get paid to sleep.

Love you all!

T