Brookelyn's first trip to the dentist

I broke down & called the dentist today about Brookelyn.  All four of her molars have been swollen something terribly all summer long.  The other day I noticed her bottom right molar looked like raw hamburger & was discolored some.  I was thinking it might be infected.

Dr. Gehring is really good with my kids.  Brookleyn was a bit freaked out when I laid her down but then she noticed the tv in the ceiling and I held her hands and sat right next to her and she did ok.  Dr. Gehring looked in her mouth and came to the conclusion that she had a cyst on her right bottom molar rupture.  Samantha had cysts on her gums when she would get teeth, but nothing that ever looked like this.  Sam's just looked like small blisters on her gums.  At one point we had some of them lanced and I swore up and down I'd never do that again!

Dr. Gehring said that she has some really thick, really tough tissue on her gums on all four molar spots.  It looks as though she's going to get some nasty cysts on all four of them.  He said that because it looks like the tissue is so thick and tough that the cysts will likely have to rupture several times before the molars can break through completely.  He said that I should give her teething rings, spoons, etc. to chew on and to encourage her to chew on things.  He said that her chewing on things will help apply pressure to the cysts which will then help the cysts rupture which will in turn result in those molars being able to break through and stay through sooner.  Dr. Gehring said I could lance the cysts at home with a plastic fork or spoon too.  I was talking to my sister later and asked her how in the heck I'd do that.  She told me that I would just use the spoon or fork to apply pressure to the cyst until is basically explodes.  Awesome.  Dr. Gehring said don't be surprised if the cysts start bleeding because they will likely bleed.  More awesomeness.

I also talked to Dr. Gehring about Nash.  I've noticed over the last few months that as his two front top & two front bottom teeth have come in that his mouth is screaming "I NEED BRACES!"  He's got one top tooth that laps over the bottom tooth and one bottom tooth that laps over the top tooth.  Dr. Gehring said that sometimes they do that until they are in all the way.  I told Dr. Gehring that these teeth are for sure in all the way.  He asked me if it was a cross bite.  I asked him what that meant.  He pulled out a card with some pictures on it and pointed to one.  I then had the pleasure of saying, "Yep.  That's EXACTLY what it looks like."  Dr. Gehring told me that that is in fact a cross bite and if it's bad enough it can cause an under bite (Caleb has a ferocious under bite).  I asked if I should schedule an appointment to bring him in before his next well check in November.  Dr. Gehring said we had better get a look at it and see what kind of plan we need to make.  Sounds to me like we're going to be making a plan for braces for Nash next Wednesday, Sept. 12 at 1:30 pm!

Apparently we are leaving the "We love our ENT" phase and entering the "We love our dentist and orthodontist" phase.  Good times never end over here!

Momastery Blog

Tonight I came across a new blog.  You can find it here: http://momastery.com/blog/ .  The name of the blog is Momastery.  I've read a few of the most recent entries.  I also clicked on each of the tabs at the top (the meet Glennon, G's family, etc.).  This girl is funny and I like her style.  I have a feeling I will be frequenting this blog.  Check it out.

A 40th Birthday Party

Today was my aunt's 40th birthday.  My grandma had a black, surprise 40th birthday party for her.  I was put on cake detail.  I made these cupcakes (thought the kids would like them) because she's "older than dirt".

I created a tombstone for her as well.

Not everyone in the family was able to make it to the party.  The only kids that were there were my aunt's five kids & my four.  They had a great time in the field next to grandma & grandpa's house.  It reminded me of when I was a kid & we'd have a get together out at their house.  I'm glad I don't have to worry about the canal (since they moved a few years ago) with Caleb (he's the one that would head straight for it I'm sure!).

The kids found all of the balls grandma had & started several rounds of dodge all.  Brookelyn kept running out into their game.  They were good sports to dodge her & she loved every single second of it.

Brookelyn LOVED the worm cupcakes:

Grandma busted out the left over bird houses from the reunion a few weeks ago & the let the kids paint.  Just the big girls & Caleb wanted to paint.  They had lots of fun though & now we've got a few more bird houses to add to our collection.  I keep forgetting to buy some shelack when I go to Walmart.  If' I'd clear coat them they'd last a long longer outside!

As usual, there was no shortage of great food or dessert!

It was fun to have a get together.  I wish more in the family could have made it.  I realized that my 40th birthday is now officially only eight years away!  There's a scary thought!  Not sure which thought is scarier, having all four kids in school full time or turning 40!

Dirt, GLORIOUS Dirt

Tonight I was sitting at the computer working on a few things.  All four kids were outside on the swing set.  I could hear them and see them and would occasionally get up and sneak out to peak a little closer.  At one point it got rather quiet.  I glanced out the back window and they were gone.  I could still hear whispers from them coming from behind the fence.  I peeked around the corner and here's what I found:

The kids LOVE playing behind the fence in the dirt.  I don't think the neighbors are too fond of this past time though.  They've filled more than one hole that the boys have left.  I pick up all the shovels, etc. every night and drag them back to our side of the property.  It's sort of a futile effort because they end up right back where they were not too long after sun up.  I told my father in law when he finally convinced Travis to plant grass out front that he was taking my children's favorite place to play away.  He brushed it off as though it was no big deal.  I know how big of a deal it was for them to lose that sacred dirt space.  In their effort to reclaim a bit of it back, they've staked their claim on the neighbor's property.  It's a good thing the neighbor's don't make too big of a fuss about it.  I don't know what the kids will do with themselves when we finally get the yard fenced in (some day).  We might have to make a sandbox when that happens!

A project, a 5K, and water

Samantha has already been given her first school assignment.  They are working to create an online slideshow to introduce themselves to their class.  She has to have 30-40 pictures showing various things about her (favorites, family, etc.).  We are working on collecting a few pictures here and there.  I'm hoping I can use a lot of pictures I've already snapped at different places.

Sam's first day back to Jr. Company at LaShar's with Teacher Jenny

 Sam's favorite books (these books are like 300 pages).  She's read the first two (got the third for Easter but has been reading other things since).  Part of what has deterred her from starting the third was that she read the first two books & neither one was an AR book & she was trying to make her AR goal this spring.  I hate AR for this exact reason!  Seriously?!  600 pages for two books that are 2 grade levels above her grade level & she gets no acknowledgement of that?  Yea, not so much an AR fan.

Look what I got today!  It's my Making Strides t shirt for the 5 K on Oct. 13th down at Liberty Park.  I'm excited.  Sam told me about three times how much she liked my new shirt and wanted to know if she was going to get one.  I told her if she does the 5 K with me that she can get one (they're only about $10 at the event).  So, who wants to come do this with me?  In the words of my ACS rep that I do Relay with "This is basically a big, fun, crazy party.  Don't stress about fundraising, you fundraised with Relay.  Just come have fun."  So, I ask again, WHO'S DOING THIS WITH ME?

Tonight I was out watering flowers and had a helper following me around.  She was completely intrigued by the sprinkler.  She kept bending over to try and catch a sprinkle of water in her mouth.  It was too cute.

 She was so happy and excited just to be there.  I decided I'd better grab my camera & capture it.  It's moments like these that I want to stop & remember.  It's making myself stop that's the hard part!

 When I moved the hose she realized there was a hole in the hose.  She kept trying to plug it with her fingers and then she'd try and catch the water spraying up at her.

 Notice the tongue sticking out in concentration?  Love it.

 Success!

More photos for Sam's project.  Our poor fluffy rat dog needs groomed so bad!  Everyone thinks we get a new dog when she gets shaved!  Her fur has grey to it when it's long and it's all a light brown underneath!

Sister decided it was a grand idea to come & sit on mom while mom was trying to take her picture.

 This is what I get when I say, "Brooke!  Look at mom!"  She gets as close as she can and says, "EESE!"

 There was just as much fun to be had when we came inside & I put her in the tub.  She's never let me put the "gogglers" on her before.  It was kinda funny to watch her with them on.

 My favorite one:

Another one for Sam's project.  She loves her some spaghetti!  I hope she doesn't edit herself out of this one.  I love her cheesy personality!  She's got so much of her Uncle Zack in her it's ridiculous!

And on a completely random side note: I'm starting to wonder if I should have told my boss to take one of my four schools and give me a different one in it's place when she mentioned this spring that four of us could just have three schools and one of us could keep four.  I volunteered to keep all four because I don't need two prep days.  I have prep time built into my schedule during my time at the schools.  This way I can take Fridays off.  So, against better judgement, I kept four schools.  I worked six hours on Monday and another three hours on Tuesday.  I wasn't suppose to have to go back to work until after Labor Day.  Why am I there already you ask?  Because certain people have neglected to do their job which therefore makes it impossible for me to do my job!  I knew this past spring that things weren't going to be followed through on certain ends but I didn't do it because it wasn't my job, I had a blow out with a principal, and I was in the midst of scheduling, coordinating, & attending 110 student presentations.  Well, I'm paying for it now.  Chalk it up to a learning experience I suppose.  I told Travis this cannot be a good omen for the year to be beginning like this.  I hope it isn't a sign of what's to come.  Seriously.  I'd have to quit my job, dig a dying hole, and crawl into it - never to be seen or heard from again.  I think I've got the mess sorted out...if the eight teachers that I need to do follow up work will do the follow up work I need them to do (does that even make sense?).  I have a meeting on Sept. 5 at this school and I'm hoping to see major improvement before then (wishful thinking probably).  I told Travis that if this year doesn't go better I need to either renew my license & get into a classroom full time or be done with teaching all together.  I'm tired of all the politics and red tape.  Yes, I realize there will be politics in any job I take on.  I also realize if I don't like them, and can't change them, I CAN change my situation and how I react.  So, we'll see how the next few weeks go.  I'm crossing my fingers that it was just a bad Monday and not a sign of what's to come this year.  I really, really, really want to LOVE my job again.