Today

I started the morning today having Jake drive me down to Burnsville to pick up a bird cage that was advertised on craigs list. It is soooo nice and such a steal! It's a good sized one and it came with a stand so it sits high and doesn't take up any table space. They even gave me a bag with a ton of bird toys in it. Everything we need to get started. Food and water holders, toys, mirrors, ropes, swings, perches, etc. and it was only 20 bucks.

On the way back from picking up the cage we were going along highway 35 and saw an officer pulled someone over up ahead, and another officer getting onto the freeway where we were at. Jake slowed down and let that officer in front of us but never pulled over to the other lane, he only slowed down so the second officer pulled over, then out behind us and pulled Jake over for not moving over one lane. I thought Jake might have been very nervous but he did ok. Luckily, I think because Jake only has his permit and is still learning, and because I have an impeccable driving record, we were only let off with a warning. However, he did let us know that the fine is $178 for not pulling over. Ouch!

Then I had to take Joy to her eye doctor appointment. I am so thankful for programs out there like the one that helped us. It's called Gift of Sight. We don't have insurance and because of Joel being laid off we don't have money for eye doctors. So when Joy had trouble at her Kindergarten screening they gave us a referral to Lens Crafters who participate in the program. Joy was diagnosed with hyperopia in her left eye. In her case it's pretty severe, where she can't see things either near or far. So he gave her a glasses prescription, where the lens for the left eye is not as strong as she needs, so that the eye has to work, and then she has to wear an eye patch over her right eye every day for an hour, along with the glasses. She was very excited about the glasses, and I let her pick out what pair she wanted. I wished they had red or pink ones that she would have found adorable, but she did find a pair of darker ones that she loved. We go back in the morning to pick them up. They would have been ready today, but we went up north to Meadowlands to visit Joel's grandmother's grave.
So after the appointment we went about 2 and a half hours north to visit the graveyard that many of Joel's family is buried in.
We stopped for dinner on the way home and now the kids are all stir crazy from sitting in the van all day. We did bring along their tv units that play movies and also come with 30 games for the kids to play, so they weren't completely bored, they just had to play round-robbin with the tv's because we only have two. But Josh and Jaeden keep breaking out into fights. It's about time to put them to bed, thank goodness!