Skis for boys

We got our tax refund and although most of it had to go right towards bills we used a little for fun. For the little (now bigger) boys fun! We found that renting skis was literally half the price of skiing so we would do a lot better buying the boys their own skis. We found some great end of season deals In fact ski equipment for two boys is almost less expensive than one little pair of eyeglasses through some irritating vision plan providers. Go figure.....

First though we had to find our way back into our own State after wandering out if it (accidentally) while searching for eyeglasses that work with that pesky vision plan.

Ahh there is New Hampshire, I knew I left it somewhere around here.

A few days ago Colin got measured. He was very upset that he had to try on "girl color" ski boots since they were out of some sizes in "boy color". The salesman assured him that the pair he buys will be boy colored but it didn't make trying on pink and white boots any easier so Colin closed his eyes through it all!

That's better!

The place we bought from sells both ski and golf equipment, it is a warehouse. Tristan liked the big golf ball and wanted a picture with it.

Today we picked up the completed ski packages The boys were happy as can be and can't wait to ski again! Colin even got his favorite color, orange!

It gets harder

In our continuing saga of Finding an eyeglasses retailer who
1. accepts our VISION PLAN
2. can do high power prescriptions
3. charges reasonable rates
4. is not 1,000 miles away
We stopped at two more eyeglasses stores today on the way to somewhere else.

One was not open, that was easy.

Two was open and helpful (too helpful and hovering?) and got us all set up with a pair of glasses (after much thought and more thought by Tristan) and then said our part of the bill, less VISION PLAN payment of $149 would be $200. Yes this would actually cost more than going out of network to our original eye doctor. $350 for one child's pair of glasses and not a particularly special pair at that. When we asked if they had frames that were perhaps less expensive we were told they were all the same price. Okay.

While optimistically trying glasses Tristan found these cool magnetic sunglasses. They magnetize right to their matching glasses. Adult sizes only though!


He finally settled on these glasses until we got the over sized quote.

Later in the day I looked online and called the horrid VISION PLAN and found that we can't even look further now because the overpriced store put in a claim already and we are only allowed one pair of glasses a year. It just gets more and more complicated. The horrid but somewhat helpful vision plan said she can cancel the claim on Monday and then we can try again. She suggested a Walmart in the southern part of the state as they actually still accept this awkward vision plan and have good prices. I guess it's worth the drive to get the NotFreeButLessExpensive glasses through the vision plan, which I might add we don't plan to renew next year!

Thank goodness for the online retailers but I am still determined to actually use the VISION PLAN which we are paying $20 a month for!

I hate it when that happens

When the snow plow builds up the snow so much along the sides of the road that it completely blocks the path out of the house.


That is inevitably the day that the mailman will beep instead of drop off because he has a parcel and then if the path is not cleared one of us (me) will have to climb through the snow piles to get to the road.

I cleared the path and found the mailbox again too. It was quite buried.


It is a pretty site on our road these days but a cold one. More snow coming Sunday.

How hard could it be?

Eyeglasses take 3...no 4. Last summer Tristan got eyeglasses. They broke after a few months...all by themselves. He got new frames, under warranty. The puppy ate the frames and the lenses. We PAID FOR new frames and lenses. Last night Tristan forgot to put his glasses away before bed and they got slept on and stepped on and probably bitten by the puppy. They were on the floor by his bed when he woke up...broken again.

So now, here we are with a VISION INSURANCE PLAN surely we are prepared for anything now.

Tristan's regular eye doctor it turns out doesn't accept the vision plan. On the back of the flimsy paper card they sent there are logos for places like Walmart, Sears, JC Penney and Target. We head off optimistically for the promised once yearly FREE pair of eyeglasses.

Our nearest Walmart, 45 minutes away, is not part of the plan because they are independently owned not part of the chain. They still wanted to sell us something and were relatively helpful but by gosh we want to get the promised FREE pair from the VISION PLAN which is not free, it's $20 a month.


Sears looked promising. They helped Tristan choose a frame (a lengthy process), wrote up the order even though the VISION PLAN's system was down and they couldn't verify that Tristan is insured. Typed the prescription into their system then...nothing. They can not do Tristan's prescription since it is a high number prescription (blind as a bat in daytime kinda prescription).


So we move on to JCPenney. "Our location doesn't have vision facilities" we are told.


Target..."this location has no optical shop" we are told.

Then we gave up and went home. I do have a pair on order from Zenni Optical (and plan to get a second pair from them too, great prices) but I still hope to eventually find a way to get a FREE or cheap pair through the VISION PLAN which is now seeming like not such a good plan at all.

What's Up?

What's up there on that roof?


It's furry and orange


and cute and silly


It's Flower the cat!

Perhaps he wanted to enjoy the warmer day today, without sitting on the mountains of snow on the ground.

Tubing Cub Scouts

We went snow tubing again this week, this time as a cub scout den meeting. We suggested it and the leader said sure! A fun time was had. I am convinced that tubing is the most difficult thing ever to photograph, they go too fast!

Randon pics

Our ferrets are multi talented

Not only are some of them maths ferrets as shown in an earlier post some of them are also phonics and language arts ferrets! These kids around here sure have it easy with all the ferret helpers!

Wait a minute here, don't eat the book!

What a "Bover" long hair is

Tristan's hair was "bovering" him so much that he couldn't concentrate on his reading this morning.


It was looking scraggly so I set up my Mommy barber shop (hair clippers).


Tristan didn't like his haircut though because he only wanted the front cut he wanted to keep the rest long until summer. I convinced him we should do it the same all over and he agreed but then felt upset after it was cut off. I haven't a lot of skill in hair cutting and can really only do a buzz cut with the clippers or no cut at all. I did use a longer length plastic thing so it wouldn't be totally summer short.


No photos please, I'm too distressed by this short hair!

Tristan soon forgot about the hair cutting incident had a quick shower to get the itchy hair off and played happily the rest of the day. He kept a handful of his cut hair though! LOL

I on the other hand noticed that one of Tristan's toys needed sprucing up. His magnet set. He used to bring his magnet set absolutely everywhere, he only brings it sometimes now. The set has been to parks and co-op's and friends houses etc. The set was filthy! I was worried about it all rusting but on second look decided I didn't care, all the magnet parts and pieces looked filthy. I soaked it all for an hour then rinsed and dried and the magnets look good as new again. No rust!

Girl Scout science and snow on the way

More snow is coming but before that we walked a couple dogs to the lake, didn't stay long though, there was a real chill in the air at the lake. It's often a lot colder there than at our house which is not far up the road.

Brought in lots of wood to get ready, look Mom- no jacket. Colin is rarely cold, a hearty New England child I guess!

About 4:00 PM the snow arrived.

Earlier in the day Hayley worked on the last few requirements for two girl scout patches. Making it Matter and Water Wonders. As usual a brother or two joined in for parts of it. Sometimes girl scout things match up well with cub scout things too. I sometimes refer to this site Scout School to see what requirements the kids can work on together or just to see what fits a need in our homeschooling.

Making a polymer...or flubber!

A ferret helps out!

Later adding salt and other items to bowls of the polymer to see how it changes.

Fun to play with but messy too.

Colin LOVES messy.

Then we moved on to engineering a structure that would hold a cup full of gravel, using only rolled newspaper, tape, a cup and string...oh and gravel. Colin this is not your experiment!

The first try didn't work.

After some modifications, success the structure holds a heavy cup of gravel!

We also made some circuits, with wires and batteries and such not the easy way with our much loved snap circuits! LOL wasn't sure if it would count for the patch if we used the snap circuits.


and froze some salt water and fresh water to see which froze first.

The fresh water froze solid where the salt water stayed somewhat slushy.