Retainer update

This has been quite the unanticipated journey to say the least.

Here is the before picture:

Wed. Jan 2 - Nash got his retainer.  The original retainer they made didn't fit (surprised?  Yea, me either.)  The original retainer was your typical retainer - pink roof and metal wire around the teeth.  It didn't fit because 1-he's missing four teeth on top and 2-the majority of the teeth he does have on top are still baby teeth.  So, we sat in the dentist's office while they made a new mold of his teeth (the front teeth that we are trying to fix got broken off the first mold they made when the original retainer was made).  The second retainer they created is one that looks like a piece of plastic - seriously.  It fits along the top of his mouth and covers all of his top teeth.  He can take it out to eat and brush his teeth (and when his mother isn't looking).  Dr. Lambert told me that he thought it would only take 3-4 days to move that stubborn tooth to where we wanted it because we had made so much progress with the resin.

Thurs Jan 3 - Nash is complaining about his retainer hurting him.  I sympathized with him some.  I never had braces or a retainer so I can't say I know how he feels.  I kept telling him to buck up and that it was probably just his teeth moving that he could feel.

Friday Jan 4 - Nash is still complaining about his retainer hurting.  I finally (mostly in exasperation and to get him to stop whining) tell him to take his retainer out and show me where it's hurting.  He had previously told me it was hurting where he's missing teeth so I figured it was pushing teeth forward more than anything.  Turns out, the retainer had cut his gums where that piece of skin is that connects his cheek to his gums.  Oops.  Upon further inspection I notice that it's starting to cut his gums in the same spot on the right side as well.  After multiple texts to my sister (and mom) I decided I would try and find some wax they give kids for braces.

Saturday Jan 5 - Fortunately for me, I have many, many family members who have had braces!  One such fabulous person is my 14 (or is he 15?)  yr old cousin!  I called my aunt on Saturday morning and she was able to find some wax that Austin was no longer using since he has recently had his braces taken off.  She was kind enough to let us have the wax!

Monday Jan 7 - Today I was able to get Nash an appointment with the dentist.  Dr. Lambert was able to file down the retainer on both sides so that it is no longer rubbing on either side of his gums.  Dr. Lambert also put a bit more of the resin into the mold to help push Nash's front tooth a little further forward.  We have another appointment scheduled for Thursday afternoon and we are crossing our fingers that his tooth has completely moved by then & we will be retainer and resin free!

Thursday Jan 10 - Found out Nash threw his retainer away at school today!  I told him he owes the custodian a thank you card for helping him dumpster dive!  He didn't realize he'd thrown it away until the end of lunch so they were dumpster diving outside in the big dumpster.  Gross!  It wasn't even Nash that told me he threw it away!  It was a friend of mine who is the secretary at the school.  Nash was mortified when I mentioned it!  He went back to the dentist today to see if his tooth had moved all the way.  Turns out.....it has!  He only has to wear his retainer at bedtime now and he only has to do that until the end of January.  I did ask the dentist if he was sure the tooth had moved all the way because on the inside side it looks like it hasn't moved all the way over the top of the bottom tooth.  Turns out, he's worn his front permanent tooth down.  So, the bottom of his tooth is crooked now and will have to be fixed at a later date.  But, apparently that's an easy fix.  I sure hope so!

Here is the after picture:

No more top tooth behind bottom tooth!  He still looks a little goofy because he's missing two teeth on both sides so he only has two teeth and then two very big gaps!  You can also see how the bottom of his top tooth has been worn away (top tooth on the left - it's more obvious when you see it in person than it is in this picture).  

Act of kindness #6

Last night the kids and I dropped a few of our newly purchased groceries in the bin for donations to the food pantry on our way out the door of Smith's Marketplace.  I would probably have given something different (like diapers) if I had seen it on my way into the store.  Oh well!

Act of Kindness #5

I've decided it may take us a month to reach all 26 acts of kindness, but that's ok, we'll get it done eventually!

Tonight Travis left home to head back to work.  He left at about 8 pm.  Around 9:45 pm I got a phone call from him.  As I answered the phone I wondered what he could have possibly left behind.

Turns out, he had just reached Bear Lake.  As he was coming through the canyon, he came upon an over turned car.  He said he felt like he just couldn't pass the three girls that were sitting there and not help them.  He pulled over and went over to them.  I guess there was a guy in a semi there too.  Travis asked him if he was ok & if someone had headed down to call 911.  The guy just shook his head yes.  Travis said the guy didn't say a single word the entire time he was there.  Travis said he never did find out exactly what happened but all 3 of the girls that had been in that car were completely shaken up.  He told them they could sit in his truck while they waited for the ambulance and cops to show up.

I can't imagine how scared those girls were!  He said they were in their early 20's or so.  I know that I'd have been terrified if that was me!  Travis said he told them they were all lucky none of them were hurt.  They must have all had a seat belt on is all I can figure.  That, or they have something incredibly important left to do here.

I'm glad the girls were ok and that no one was seriously injured.  I'm also glad Travis happened to go through right then.  If nothing else it gave them a warm spot to sit while they waited for the emergency personnel to show up.  Good job Travis! :)

Hello 2013!

Dear 2013,
This year we have many things we are looking forward to!  We are excited you are finally here and we can get started!

Travis:
-Has inquired about becoming an engineer at work.  This would mean a change from hourly pay to salary.  It would also mean a 12 week trip to Houston for training. :(
-Hunting with Nash & Caleb in the fall.
-Perhaps going to his 15 year high school reunion.

Misty:
-Trying to decide whether to go back to teaching full time, stay where I am, or quit working and stay home.  That will all depend on what happens with Travis's job though.
-Learning to crochet.
-Finishing the levi quit I started for my mom 2 years ago!  I got the top done!  We just need to buy batting, tie it & bind it!
-Finishing the T shirt quilt I've been working on since April 2012!
-Walking more laps at Relay this year than last year.
-Matching my Relay fundraising total from last year ($1500ish).
-Paying off the Specialty Hospital bill & NO ONE ELSE having ear surgery!  Or any other surgery for that matter!
-Becoming a Cricket expert!
-Learning to do digital scrapbooking.
-Turning the blog into a book(s) and get it printed.  I already have 2008 & 2009 done and ready to print.  Just waiting for a good deal to come through!
-Celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary!

Samantha:
-Turning TEN!
-Participating in her first Wellsville Mile.
-Beginning FIFTH GRADE in the fall.  (Mom's hoping this also means no more recorder practice for school!)
-Possibly moving up a level in piano.
-Swimming lessons for a second year.
-Hitting the one year mark for allergy shots in June!  This means she'll get to go from shots once a week to shots once a month.
-Scrapbooking (I set up a spot for her to do it in the basement.  I'm hoping I can 1-keep the boys & B out of it 2-get some of my own done and 3-not create a scrapbook monster!)

Nash:
-Turing EIGHT & getting baptized!
-Hunting with dad and the boys in the fall.
-Shooting his new BB gun.
-Beginning THIRD GRADE in the fall.  (Look out cursive, here we come!)
-Possibly moving up a level in piano.
-Swimming lessons for a second year.
-Hitting the one year mark for allergy shots in September!  This means he'll get to go from shots once a week to shots once a month.

Caleb:
-Turning FIVE!
-Beginning KINDERGARTEN in the fall.  We are very sad that we will have to leave Miss Shannon behind.
-Going hunting with dad and the boys for the FIRST time.
-Maybe getting his first loose tooth (he's been pretending he's had one for at least 2 years now!).
-Swimming lessons for a second year.
-Possibly doing craft camp with Miss Shannon this summer.

Brookelyn:
-Turning TWO!  Mom already calls her "The Tiny Terror."  Sam & her brothers call her "Monster."  Everyone calls her "Trouble."
-Possibly doing craft camp with Miss Shannon this summer.
-An adventure in potty training.  Sister is allergic to something in the diapers.  We've bought panties to put over her diaper to give her another layer she has to peel off before she can be naked.  It's slowed her down a little. :)

2013 is sure to be an adventure.  Life never is dull around here for too long.  Here's to making the most of what we've got while we've got it!

Christmas 2012

Christmas this year has been a little unique.  We started our Christmas parties this week on Sunday, the 23rd, out at my Grandpa Maughan's house.  Not everyone was at Grandpa's house.  Heck, we haven't all been together in five years (Grandpa's big 80th birthday party)!  It would be really neat to be all together.  My mom said my aunt figured there are 22 grandkids, 37 great grandkids and 3 more great grandkids on the way.  That's not even counting my dad, his five brothers and their spouses either.  Yep, we number many in that clan!  We didn't stay too long because we also had to head to the Snyder's house.  Usually it's my grandparents, my family, my Aunt Colette's family, my Aunt Nikki's family & my Uncle Stan's family.  In short, it's a large gathering (not as large as the Maughan's, but still a good size get together).  This year though we were short people!  It felt like we were short half our clan but we were only short Stan's family.  It was fun, it just didn't feel quite the same.  I'm thinking we should have a New Year's Eve Reeder party so that we can all get together for real!  The reason Stan's family missed is that they had the flu bug at their house.  We've been dealing with the flu bug too.  It came back and hit Caleb again about the Friday or Saturday before Christmas.  It's been really weird how it's effected the boys.  It will hit them really hard for several hours, they nap for a few hours and then they're good to go for another several hours before it hits them again. This nasty little bug hit Travis Christmas morning and Brookelyn the day after Christmas.  I'm crossing my fingers it stays the heck away from me!

At the Reeder party - kids were waiting for their presents.  

On Christmas Eve we had a get together at my mom's house.  We always do dinner and open gifts over there on Christmas Eve.  There's never a shortage of good treats to eat or presents to open.  This year my mom was a maniac and sewed most of the gifts she gave the kids.  I didn't get pictures of everything she sewed for my kids, but I'm thinking that I'll have to do that now....seriously, she's out of control!

Brookelyn was fun to watch.  She REALLY got into opening the presents.  She'd open one present and get excited about it and then set it down and go for another one.  It was fun to watch her get so excited.

My mom always wraps all the presents she has for the kids individually.  Then, she puts all the presents for each kid into one large box and wraps the large box.  The first year she did this the kids thought they were only getting one present each.  They went nuts when they opened the big box and saw a bunch more wrapped presents inside!

This was Brookelyn's favorite gift this year.  I wanted to get her a shopping cart, but all the carts I found had mostly cardboard food in them.  I knew they'd get destroyed really quick so I didn't buy any of the ones I found.  My mom found this one.  There is quite a bit of cardboard food but there's a good amount of the little plastic food too.  She loves this thing.  Every time I turn around she's dumped all the food on the floor and is pushing the cart across the floor as fast as she can.  She keeps trying to climb in it and sit too!  Cracks me up.  I'm just waiting for her to go out sideways and land on her head!

Sam got a skein of cute blue fuzzy yarn to go with her knitting loom thing.  There are several different looms and you can make hats, scarves, etc.  There are even directions for making a cute raffia flower. We bought some raffia the other day so we could try that one out.  She's excited to learn how to do this.  I have a feeling once she learns she's going to be a knitting maniac.

Christmas morning was lots of fun.  The kids each have a pile of gifts with their stocking next to it.  Brookelyn was funny because once we got her opening presents she'd try and go to a different pile to open a present each time!  The kids were really good about steering her back to her specific pile!

Caleb got this sucker in his stocking.  There's a real scorpion in the sucker.  He asked me what it was and when I told him he said, "That's A-sgusting!"  Now he claims "It's not a-sgusting mom.  It's cool!"  I will not be encouraging him toe at this.  Not even a little.  In fact, I'm going to have to watch to be sure his dad and brother don't encourage him to eat it!

Caleb gave Brooke her very first Barbie for Christmas this year.

Nash is now a more official LEGO maniac.  He wore this shirt today and kept trying to pull his legs inside his shirt and walk!  Goof ball.

Caleb's favorite gift this year - a spiderman fishing pole.  He saw a pole like this at Ridley's about six months ago and now every single time we go to the store (doesn't matter what store) he asks if we will buy him his spiderman fishing pole.  He is so, so excited to try this out.  Too bad his dad hates the idea of ice fishing - guess he has to wait until it's warm out to try out his pole!

Brookelyn got lots of babies this Christmas.  She loves them.  And, come to find out, she loves pushing them around in a baby stroller too.  I think sister is going to need a new baby stroller for her birthday....

Nash's favorite gift this year -- a new BB gun.  Yes, it scares me.  I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but how he got this gun still surprises me.  I was looking through the Black Friday ads when Travis saw this BB gun on sale for about $20 or $30.  He was dying to get it for Nash and I kept telling him NO!  Nash isn't getting a gun until he's eight!  Then, it hit me.  I told him, "If you brave the gray Thursday/Black Friday hoards with me, you can get him the gun for Christmas."  Anyone that knows Travis knows how much the man hates to shop, hates people, and hates people while shopping.  I didn't figure there was a snowball's chance in hell that he'd agree to this.  Turns out I was WRONG.  Not only did he brave the hoards to get the BB gun, we went to about 3 stores!  Now I know better!

Remember how I said my mom made a ton of the gifts she gave the kids this year?  One of the things she made was matching dresses for my girls and my sister's girls.  My girls wore their dresses on Christmas day.  They look so stinking cute.  Made me think back to when I was growing up and my mom would always make my sister and I Christmas dresses.

On Christmas day we went out to Travis's parents house.  We got out there around 11:30 am and were there until 11:30 pm!  The only reason we were out there so late is because I took my sewing machine and the things I needed so I could put the last of the binding on the last 2 I Spy quilts for my nephews!  I had two of the bindings done on the quilts, but I still had 2 quilts to finish binding.  I wasn't happy with how they looked because I did the binding on my machine rather than by hand.  Oh well, the kids won't care and I got them done!

Caleb opening his gift from his cousin Kash.

Brookelyn trying to make a get away to open someone else's present.  If you look in the background at Travis you can see he's hugging something.  Brookelyn had opened a baby doll from Grandma & Grandpa and was headed to open another present that belonged to someone else.  She was being onery and Travis was trying to get her side tracked by loving on her baby.  She didn't go for it!

Christmas Day naps.  Travis wasn't feeling too great and later in the day the yuckies hit B too.  This was a much needed nap.

Remember the flying suit my mom made Caleb for his birthday?  When Nash started reading Captain Underpants this fall it seemed like whenever she'd come up to our house Caleb would be running around in his underwear and occasionally  his flying suit.  So, my mom started calling him Captain Underpants.  Nash has since decided he wants to be Captain Underpants for Halloween.  I think that will be a bit chilly of a costume.  Anyway, my mom decided it would be fun to make flying suits for Nash and my nephew Jack for Christmas too.  Once she had them almost done she got feeling guilty about not doing one for Caleb too - even though he already had one from his birthday.  So, she threw one together for Caleb too.  This flying suit has a bat on the back and mom made the mask and belt that go with it.  Caleb loves it and has worn it quite a bit already!

Other than having the flu off and one for 2 full weeks now, we've had a great Christmas.  The kids loved their stuff and seeing all their family.  I feel like a total slacker because I didn't make any Christmas treats this year and I ALWAYS make Christmas treats.  I think I might break down and make something this weekend still.  It's killing me!  I also still don't have the fifth I Spy quilt done that I needed for a birthday present on Christmas Eve.  I'm working on it though.  I moved all my sewing stuff down to my office after cleaning out my office today.  I also took one of my 6 ft tables and set it up in the basement and moved some scrapbook stuff out there.  Sam got some scrapbook stuff from my mom for Christmas.  She also got some for her birthday the last two years in a row.  I'm a terrible mom and haven't let her do it despite her repeated begging sessions!  I finally found pictures she could have when I cleaned out my office in Oct.  Now, I can say that I've fixed her a spot to work too!  I think that will be on the agenda for tomorrow!  Guess regular scrapbook sessions with Sam will have to go on the New Year's resolutions!

And on a side note, for anyone who was privy to the toaster joke between Travis and I....I did get a toaster for Christmas.  Everyone but Sam & I have used it.  Travis said it burns stuff.  I told him he just has it turned up too high.  Guess I'll have to use it tomorrow!  However, he did redeem himself because he also got me a Cricket Expressions 2.  When I opened it Travis told me, "Now you can quit sewing and start scrapbooking!"  HA!  If only it were that easy!  Little does he know I have 50 things that I've either started or bought to start that I have to finish first!