-ectomy and the 9 month check up

Taylor had his nine month check up on the 18th (a week early). He is 29 3/4 inches long and a very solid 23.8 pounds. He's a chunker!!

Doc took some time looking at his front teeth. I think the gap is adorable, but doc is concerned. He mentioned something about some sort of "-ectomy." I think he assumed that with my extensive background in dentistry (sarcasm at your service) that I understood. I finally pieced it together. He thinks the gum tissue between Taylor's front teeth is too thick and fibrous. If this procedure is done, it will allow his teeth to be better position and the odds of his adult teeth not being so gaped will be better.

I was talking to Ayron about the whole thing later that day and he kind of panicked. Over 40 years ago, Kelly (would be his mother's sibling) went in for some dental work. She was 6 (I think) and she was given too much ether and passed away. Ever since then Ayron and his mother freak out when people need dental work. I don't mean to sound insensitive, but that was OVER 40 years ago. They have different practices and procedures now. They don't even have to knock TJ out to do this. Just about a 60 second deal then hold him while he cries and the bleeding stops. But Ayron freaked out, "Don't tell my mom she will be all upset." Well, welcome to 2008 (almost 2009), it has been 40 years and those mistakes aren't made anymore. I understand that losing a child to something that could have been easily prevented is traumatic, but that was OVER 40 YEARS AGO!

Anyone know a good pediatric dentist in the Auburn area who will do a consult?

Holy Family

Ayron, Taylor and myself will be playing Joseph, Jesus, and Mary at New Hope's Christmas Eve service (6pm, come check us out! Taylor's stage debut!). We had rehearsal last night and I was a bit out of it (cold medicine). I was holding Taylor and trying to think of how Mary felt.

There Mary is, happily asleep, dreaming of good ole' Joe, when Gabe tells her that she will become pregnant. Can you imagine! I have had some whopper of a dreams, but nothing like that. Naturally, it had to be a bit overwhelming. She was a virgin about to be married. How does she explain this to Joe and her family?

Then came the donkey ride/walk. I choose to believe that she walked. Yes, walking when pregnant can suck, but imagine riding a a donkey when prego? Not happening people! Then, no hotels. Lovely, a room for two (soon to be three) at your local manger coming right up.

There were a total of 14 people in my delivery room and after 16 hours of labor your dignity goes right out the window. I can't imagine going through child birth while listening to cows chew their cud while the aroma of fresh goat poo wafts through the air. What a humble beginning for such a great man.

Then to know that you just gave birth to Jesus. How awe inspiring is that! I think I would panic at this point. Knowing that I am responsible for raising Jesus Christ! What a task at hand! Just knowing that I have TJ to raise sometimes gets me. I truly believe it does take a village (or church) to raise a child. They gain so much knowledge from so many different people who come in their lives. Wouldn't you feel bad saying, "Jesus, that was naughty. Don't bite Momma. Time out chair for you." Hello?!?! You just put your Lord and Savior in time out!

To those of you (this include Joseph and Mary) who have raised or are working on raising good children, hats off to you!

Crazy!!

It has been a crazy day. This blog may seem to ramble, but I am just trying to make sense of today's happenings and get everything in place for the weeks to come.

I was ecstatic last night to learn that I already had a two hour delay. I thought for sure they would cancel today. Nope, I was wrong.

I currently have 3 students in my program. After numerous telephone calls, emails, faxes, etc I am up to a total of 10 students. The new 7 aren't starting till after the holiday break, but it will be crazy. I will have 6 high schoolers (2 male, 4 female) and 4 middle schoolers (all boys!).

I had been trying to reach a family for a week about enrolling their son. Today the step father finally called me back. The student had cut up their arms. He claimed it was an accident, but the parents knew it was a cry for help. The student has been in counseling and is on anti-depressants. They rushed him to the hospital. Once the doctors were done bandaging his arm, he told his parents, "I drank bleach and mildew cleaner too." The doctors were amazed (doesn't seem to be the right word to use, but it is all I could come up with) that he hadn't started vomiting, it had been at least 40 minutes since he claimed he swallowed it. They were getting everything in place to pump his stomach when his body took over and he started to vomit on his own. He now in a treatment facility getting help. I sent some work (the facility wants school work) with mom this afternoon. I haven't even met this kid yet. I have no clue what he looks like, how he sounds, yet my heart broke when I heard the news.

I guess "Tis the season to kick out students" around here. I think I have everything in place for the rest of this week (I am off tomorrow for Monkey's 9 month check up...can you believe it...9 months!) but Friday will be crazy. Then two weeks of peace. Yeah right. I'm sure I'll get called into work. It's a crazy job, but someones got to do it right?

Picture Time

It's picture time once again boys and girls! I just love taking pictures of Taylor. Obsessive parent? Maybe, but I am having fun!

All decked out in his Purdue gear! Boiler Up!!

Mommy and Taylor. House Divided? I think not! My real hoodie (PURDUE) was in the washer. This is just the hoodie I wear when I don't give a crud!!

His first Christmas card! He loves it. I had to fight to take it away from him!

I know he is my kid. How? Because he likes books! We have read this three times now. It is a tongue twister too!

Look! My Monkey looks like a monk!!

Holiday Shopping and Planning

I wish I was the type of person who holiday shopped throughout the year. I am not! With three nieces, it is hard. Their tastes in ANYTHING change from minute to minute.

I usually hate holiday shopping. I have to really psych myself up to go. You see I have had some rough holidays in my lifetime. For starters, I am usually sick. Ayron and I have a joke, "It's not Christmas till Carma barfs." Yep, I start the holiday's off with a bang! I lost my grandfather around thanksgiving and his birthday is (it's still his birthday so I can't write "was") December 25th. My grandmother passed away right before Christmas my sophomore year in high school. I remember it was SO VERY COLD out and I thought the blue fuzzy seat covers at the grave site looked like Grover threw up everywhere. It's just a chaotic time of the year.

I have about 75% of the shopping done. Ayron and I are going to Ft. Wayne on Saturday to finish it up. I am actually looking forward to it! We are going to Gordmans (a new store) so that should be fun and he wants to walk around Jefferson Pointe. For those of you unfamiliar with our territory, Jefferson Pointe is an "open air" type mall. It's a bit too cold for me to want to trek around Jefferson Pointe.

Planning holiday get togethers has become a hassle too. We have to coordinate everyone's schedule. It took us 2 weeks to get this Christmas schedule planned! I think we finally have it all figured out!

Don't get me wrong, I like to see family, etc, but there is so much work involved that I wonder if I truly enjoy the season now that I am an adult.

It Never Fails

I hate going to Wal-Mart. I have to go all the time for work and it seems like we are always running out of something at home. I usually go on Sunday mornings. About once a month we do a big grocery shopping trip and I drag Ayron along with me.

Yesterday morning I discovered we were out of some things so I didn't bother to take the time to really get around. I threw my hair back in a pony tail, brushed my teeth, threw on a hoodie and left.

It never fails. If I don't take the time to look like I a human, I run into people from high school at Wal-Mart. You think I would learn to actually get around and not look like a zombie to avoid the embarrassment, but nope. Sweat pants, hoodie, pony tale and sneakers.

New Rule

I was browsing through pictures of St. Augustine (via Kym) on Facebook and I came up with a new rule.

If your place in this world doesn't get snow, you can't put up Christmas lights. It just seems odd to see lights and no snow. So there is my rule. If you don't get snow, don't decorate your house. It just looks silly!

**********************************************
@ Val- Didn't know your mom read my blog. Hi Jacque! The christmas lights rule was a joke. I just think it's funny to think about a place that is warm all year putting up lights, since I have never known that.

I do agree with you. It is sad that people get trampled and killed all for a stupid black Friday sale.

Holiday Fun

Monday night I took Taylor over to see Hunter. Hunter is 6 weeks older, but Taylor out weighs him. Not a big deal since Taylor refuses to crawl and Hunter is starting to toddle around. We decided to take some pics in front of the tree. I posted some of my favorites on facebook. For those of you who don't have a facebook account, here is the link.

GRRRR

I took yesterday off. I needed to use up some personal days, so I just took it off. I knew that I would have a pile of mess to sort through when I came back to work, but oh well.

After sorting through my pile, I would like to vent.

DON'T GET MAD AT ME!! I CAN'T DO MY JOB TILL YOU DO YOURS!!!

I am in the middle of enrolling 4 students, but I can't do a think until the schools get back with me about what work they want the students to do. Their probation officers are mad because I haven't enrolled them yet, but I can't until the school gets back with me. My hands are tied. Don't get mad at me, call the school!

Shipping

Last week I bought two Wii games from Amazon. I can track my package. When I checked it this morning I found out that sometime this weekend it left Michigan. I just checked it again, and now it is in Nevada....hmmm... A bit out of the way. I think it is funny that my package could have just come straight south, but instead they sent it out west first. Oh well!

I did ship a package today to my dad in South Carolina via UPS. I am curious what route it will take!

Santa

We took Taylor to see Santa last night. He wasn't afraid, in fact he was very curious. Santa had a beard that felt funny and glasses! Bad Santa. He parked his chalet on a handicapped space in a government employee parking lot.Don't even think of taking my bink away from me!

My hat is WAY cooler than yours!

I've been good. I swear!

How Long?

How long does it take for a life to change? 1 day? 1 hour? 1 week? 1 minute?



We are coming up on the second anniversary of the accident that changed everything. Here the blog I posted two years ago.

We, Nikki and I, were talking about the accident last night. The anniversary is proudly written on the family calendar. It marks a change in not only her life, but our family's life. We are stronger now. Not a week goes by that I don't see my nieces or in-laws. That month of living in a hospital waiting room was rough, but it did bring us closer together. It also humbled Phil. He was forced to ask for help and he realized he didn't have to go through this alone.

I can still remember the first time I saw her after the accident. They lead me back to the Neuro ICU. They told me, "She won't look like herself. She won't respond to you, but that doesn't mean she can't hear you. Talk to her, tell her who you are, hold her hand, etc." I walked into the room and about lost it. I swore I wouldn't let her hear me cry. They had the movie Frosty playing on her TV. You know, the old movie version that is horrible, but that gets played a million times around the holidays. She loves that movie. When Phil saw it on the tv, we left the tv on. Phil stepped out of the room to take a phone call and I walked over to her right side and took her hand. I was talking to her and I told her, "If you can hear me, squeeze my hand." Those two seconds were the longest of my life. Suddenly her hand grabbed mine so tight I jumped. Her legs started moving. She was panicking. They were still adjusting her meds to keep her in a "mini" induced coma, but alert enough to respond (if she could) when asked. I got Phil's attention. He waved me off (I don't think he realized what was going on and he was on the phone). I couldn't get her to calm down. Finally, Phil came in, took her other hand and she instantly calmed down. You can't tell me that people in comas don't hear, I think they do. Of course she doesn't remember any of this. She was in the hospital for exactly a month, but she only remembers the last couple of days. Thank God that she is perfectly healthy, actually she has better eyesight since the accident. The only difference is a cool scar on his thigh and her speech is still just a bit off. She sounds like someone who has had one to many to drink. But if having her voice be different means we can keep her, then we'll take it.

I have to say that I hate driving. It makes me nervous. I hate accidents even more. I have lost a grandfather to a car accident (he died long before I was born), a high school friend, and Ayron's mother's first husband was killed in a crash. It makes me nervous.

I was driving to work this morning thinking about the accident and Ayron called to say that he will be going to Wisconsin (or was it Minnesota??) this weekend to meet with a gentleman that wants to use KRUSE to auction some cars and car parts. I know if they drive that I will be a wreck. Pray for sanity!

You Gotta Be Creative...

...when you are a teacher with a teacher's salary. Check this out.

Shopping

So I am attempting to get ALL of my holiday shopping (including baking supplies) done this week. I am currently filing my cart at amazon.com. I decided to look at coloring books (it's a family thing) and you can buy used coloring books for around $1. What fun is that? Why would I want to buy a book that is half scribbled in?

Idiot!!

Last night one of the tv shows did a special segment about Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown. Here is an article I found on line that briefly discusses why she is in the news.

At the end of the television segment the news reporter said that they had tried to contact the two men she saved. The one man she saved said, "Women have no write to serve on front lines and have no place in the service."

I was shocked. That jerk of a guy is not thankful? She saved his macho butt and he can't even say "thanks"? I understand that according to our military "rules" women are not to serve in front line combat. But sorry to tell you people, war doesn't always follow a nice neat plan. Sometimes our service men AND women are attacked and forced into the front lines. I was just so mad at the man. She saved his life. If it were a man that saved his life he probably would have done an on camera interview!

I understand that this is controversial. If it were a man, would it have gotten this much attention? Would the solider have been awarded the medal? I don't know. She did keep stating, "I was simply doing my job." She wasn't trying to be a hero, she was trying to protect and help the people that she had become friends with.

I was just appalled at that jerk or a solider who couldn't even thank the woman that saved him!

One Word

All of my students are on their lunch break so I have time to do yet another silly email forward and post it to my blog.

TYPE ONLY 1 WORD. IT’S HARDER THAN YOU THINK!!!
1. Where is your cell phone? Desk
2. Your spouse/boyfriend or girlfriend? Ayron (part of me thought, "do they want to know where he is? They did just ask where my cell phone is???"
3. Your hair? blech
4. Your mother? Work?
5. Your father? East
6. Your favorite thing? Taylor
7. Your dream last night? Work
8. Your favorite drink? Amaretto
9. Your dream/goal? Happiness
10. The room you are in? Office
11. Your fear? Failure
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Mommy
13. Where were you last night? Michigan
14. What you are not? Perfect
15. Muffins? Yummy.
16. One of your wish list items- Peace
17. Where you grew up? Auburn
18. The last thing you did. Yawned
19. What are you wearing? Clothes
20. Your TV? Crappy
21. Your pet. Hyper
22. Your computer? Government's
23. Your Life? Hectic
24. Your mood? Grouchy
25. Missing someone? Sister
26. Your car? drivable
27. Something you are not wearing. Glasses
28. Your favorite store? Changes
29. Your summer? Short
30. Your favorite color? Blue
31. When is the last time you laughed? Morning
32. Last time you cried. unsure.
33. Who will/would re-post this? Nat??
34. Who do you miss the most? many
35. Four places I go, over and over. Work, Sitter, Wal-Mart, Mom's
36. Four people who e-mail me: Aunt, Sis, Dad, Kelly
37. Four of your favorite foods: Fish, Salad, Deer, Potato
38. Four places I would rather be right now: bed, Florida, bed, Florida
39. Four people I think will respond: ???

How I spent my long weekend

Here are some pictures and videos that show you just how I spent my long (5 day) weekend!

This shirt was given to Taylor from "Uncle Tyler" while home on a visit. It cracks me up!

This is Taylor on Thanksgiving Morning at Meijer. He fell asleep on the way and I didn't want to carry him around the store, so we made a "bed" in the cart!

This is Taylor and Daddy sword fighting at Meijer.

Scooter singing his version of Chirstmas Carols.

Most people spent "Black Friday" shopping. Not at our house. My boys (all three) were up around 6:30, but back down around 7:30!

Things I've Done

Want to play? Copy and paste. Pick a color for the things that you have done.



I HAVE...

1. Started my own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than I can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland/world- I was little. I only remember dropping my icecream bar shaped like Mickey's head.

8. Climbed a mountain- I actually climbed one right after a rain storm while sining, "The hills are alive with the sound of music." Only to be told that the mountain I just climbed and sang on was the same one as Julie Andrews!!

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sung a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched lightening at sea

14. Taught myself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child- Does adopting on in a foreign country and sending money count?

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown my own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitchhiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run- Does Wii Sports Baseball count? If so, then I should be drafted!!

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught myself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David- in pictures!

41. Sung karaoke- only with my nieces at the in-laws.

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa- Came oh so freaking close. But the weather was too bad and the tourist boats weren't traveling that day. So instead we stayed at Gibralter and were attacked by monkies.

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had my portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma- Then passed out in front of students and was escorted back to my classroom by football players in case I passed out again. Embarassing!!

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp- Creepiest place ever, yet very overwhelming to think about all that went on.

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had my picture in the newspaper- Stupid snowman!

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life- I don't know why I highlighted this one....I think it was a mistake.

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Ridden an elephant