mommy bytes: October 2011

You know you're old when your kids ask you to jump in the leaf pile with them and you say, "No way!" I remember loving to jump in the fall leaves as a kid. Even in New York City before the 1978 pooper scooper law, I used to beg my mom to let me run through the leaves. Nowadays, I whole-heartedly join other types kid fun, but somewhere along the way, I grew out of leaf jumping. But these kids have taken leaf jumping to new heights of joy.

Who would ever think that getting a faceful of leaves thrown at you could be so much fun?

Or a talking leaf pile? I should clarify, a crazy talking leaf pile.

Let's not forget Dova's rendition.

But my favorite photo is this gravity-defying explosion of leaves and kids.

Autumn is good. Too bad it's snowing outside right now here in New England!

I've been a long time online shopper of inexpensive prescription eyeglasses for my kids and myself. The kids still go through glasses every 4 to 6 months and at buying glasses at a tenth of retail is a no-brainer. But my own eyeglass prescription is very strong, requiring significantly more expensive high index lenses. The last time I purchased glasses online, I went for some fashionable rectangular lenses, forgetting the fact that a wide frame make high prescription lenses extremely thick on the edges. Plus the wide lenses gave my face the "smashed in" look on the sides. If I had the opportunity to try these frames in a store, I may have realized that the frames would not have worked on my face with my prescription.

When I had the opportunity to review glasses from GlassesUSA.com, I was glad to search for some smaller frames. The one thing that I really liked about GlassesUSA was their virtual mirror. Other sites also allow you to upload a photo, but you can never really tell the scale of the glasses in relationship to your face. GlassesUSA provides a pupillary distance ruler so you can scale your photo to match the size of the frames. See how exact it is?

You can also compare eyeglasses easily and send photos to friends to check out. Yes, those are the real prices for the frames and basic lenses at $38!

I received my glasses within a week and was extremely pleased with the quality of the frames and workmanship. With my new smaller frames, the high index lenses were the thinnest on the edges that I've ever seen. When I wore my new glasses to work, my co-workers complimented me, saying that my face no longer looked "smashed in" and that I didn't look extremely near-sighted anymore. Wow!

Next time you are looking to buy glasses, check out GlassesUSA.com. They are high quality, inexpensive and delivered lightning fast. Also check out these coupon codes!