3rd Time's.......Expensive!

3 out of our 4 children now have braces on.  Well, 2 of them.  Jared is in between phases waiting for MJ to get hers off in a couple more weeks so that we can try to avoid having the orthodontist just have Nate's check direct deposited into his account.  ha ha ha....sniff sniff boo hoo!  lol  Our little Ethan's mouth was more emergent than putting Jared back in soooo, here's my cutie patooty in braces.  Poor little guy had to endure an expander in his mouth first to get his upper pallet wide enough because he's got a cross bite.  Getting the expander off turned out to be quite traumatic because it just didn't want to come off of his teeth.  It got so bad that I wasn't sure we could finish the process or that the orthodontist would let him come back in to get the braces on.  It was really sad and it made him a bit nervous to go back 1 week later to get the braces on.  I asked him on the way if he ever talked to himself in hard situations.  He didn't know and thought that was a weird question!  We went over some things he could say to himself to get him through the experience because I have found, with him especially, that my support makes things worse.  He feels safe to freak out when I am there to comfort but can hold it together much better if I back way off.  He has an especially hard time with things falling onto his tongue and not knowing what to do with the saliva that builds up.  So when he felt panic rising up he was supposed to say things like, I'm going to be ok, I can breathe, relax, this will be over soon....  He did so great.  Even when they brought out the super sour nasty stuff they use to get your teeth ready for braces he remained calm.  He was so proud of himself and he loves his braces.  We just got them on Wednesday and already the teeth have moved a bunch.  We had to wait to put the bottom ones on for awhile because his bite is too deep so he would end up just biting the bottom brackets off.  Braces are a pain and super expensive but so worth being able to provide a properly functioning mouth with straight teeth that wont cause them major problems in their adulthood.  

Country

As I was running some errands this weekend in the car with my kids my 14 year old daughter flipped the station to country.  Say whaa???  When did this happen, I asked.  All I got was a shoulder shrug and "It's good, I like it."  Her best friend listens to it and so now my daughter does to.  Time to adjust the 'ole ear drums again!

There have been 3 times in my life where I have listened to the music genre.  1st time was in high school because my best friend listened to it. Back then it was pretty painful stuff to listen to because they had not embraced the pop culture yet.  2nd time was when I worked in a bicycle shop for a couple that I knew and it was on in the shop.  It wasn't long before I knew all the words to all the songs that made my ears bleed.  The infection started taking hold and soon I was "accidentally" turning the station to it in my car, but never setting a preset...... because.... that would be admitting something, now wouldn't it?  After each of these periods of temporary insanity I would eventually not be able to handle the sound any longer and return to good ole rock/pop.  3rd time was when I moved to nm and became friends with Jo.  She kept trying to talk me into liking the genre and I kept claiming that my ears were bleeding.  That is until she made me a vhs recorded tape of the country music channel to prove to me that I liked the stuff.   Dang that girl and her persistence!  A new country group had just emerged with some rascals and some flats.  Dang those guys!  So in 2001 I went to my first official concert with my corrupter, Jo, at the state fair for 11 bucks.  We were looking pretty awesome huh?  That night was so much fun!  Neither one of us had gone to a concert at the fair grounds before, so when we walked into the stadium and looked around we thought we were in the wrong place.  Our first clue was walking up and it smelling like a farm and then as we went through the doors all that could be seen was dirt and hardly a soul around.  We were standing there looking stupefied when a very nice gentleman came up to us and asked if he could be assistance on the count of us looking so lost.  I said something funny about it being our first time and he just grinned and laughed and told us that there would be a rodeo first.  Well my face fell at the thought of having to endure that, which he thought was even funnier.  He convinced us to stay and watch because he was just certain we would enjoy it.  The entire experience was fun and funny and we soon discovered that more people were there for the express purposes of seeing the rodeo and not the concert.  It was an excellent concert and those boys sounded amazing, even though the acoustics in the place were the pits.  I had a couple year run with accidentally landing on a country station in the car and even.....purchased a couple cds.....gasp, but soon returned to my sanity. :0)

So here we go again.  :0)  I had a sudden flash of this memory and the actual picture itself this morning while listening to the non preset station.  I have also already managed to embarrass my daughter while shopping because some of the lyrics to country songs are so hilarious that they cannot be removed from the brain and they just itch to be vocalized.  I figure that it is only fair that if I have to be tortured into listening to the stuff she has to listen to me sing it in public places!  .................she thinks my tractors sexy...... yea.....can't get that one unstuck!  :oP

River Rapids

While in Colorado we did something we have never done before, well at least not me or the kids, white water rafting.  I was pretty nervous about it because I was afraid one of the little ones would fall out of the raft.  It was a pretty mild experience, but the kids didn't know that.  All they thought was that is was the most awesome thing ever and how we absolutely have to do it every summer.  Jared ended up in the raft with all of Carol's sister's family.  Jared loved hanging out with their boys.  We had Carol in our raft because we needed another rower and then her family was in another raft.  We did an all day excursion which I was thinking that I could have done without the last hour and a half.  Too much rowing back to the adventure company's landing and not enough rowers.  They provided the best lunch I have ever been  given on a tour like this.  We've been fed some pretty disgusting things on tours.  All the meat and cheese was locally grown and made and we had sandwich wraps that were soooo soooo good.  Super fresh produce and no one ever provides  avocado, but they did.  Yum!  We managed to get stuck on some pretty big rocks on 3 occasions one of which required our guide to get out of the raft to try and free us.  Exciting!  I almost fell out of the raft one of the times we got stuck on a rock and MJ almost fell out one of the times we maneuvering through a rapid.  I was also sitting in the seat that had the most water action.  I spent most of my time getting hit with a wall of water which was enjoyable for most of the day except when the wind picked up and brought with it a chill in the air.  We also found out that our rowing skills were sub par which is always a fun thing to learn.  But, we eventually found our groove and kept in sync pretty well.  One of the all time funnest things we have done!  

3 Miracles

On our recent trip to Colorado we experienced a bit of difficulty with the RV.  We were trying to find the cabin in a very rural area that our family was staying in.  In the winter the only access you have to these roads is by way of snowmobile.  We quickly discovered that we were headed in the wrong direction and decided that we needed to turn around.  Yea, not such a good idea.  Some people just shouldn't be allowed to own such things! The road was very gravelly and they were just steep enough and the RV weighed just enough that keeping traction was no easy task.  This is what got us into trouble.  We were having a hard time getting traction and the wheel just kept spinning out and we were trying to keep from going down a pretty steep ditch on both sides of us and in the front of us.  It didn't feel too bad until I got out to try and guide Nate forward so he could come as close as he could to the ditch ahead of us to try and avoid going in the ditch on the side of us.  As soon as I opened the door and tried to get out I knew we were in serious trouble.  There was no getting out of this and we were leaking a ton of fluid.  I was worried that we had punctured a line but it turned out that it was just the overflow tank letting out all the stored water.  I told Nate that he had to come out and look because we were in critical condition.  

Miracle 1.  There was 1 bolder holding the entire thing up and from tipping over.  We stopped at just the right moment or we would have tipped for sure.  It is hard to tell from the pictures just how tipped it was.    While Nate was trying to figure a way out of the mess we found ourselves in, I walked to the next cabin and there were several men that just arrived for a biking event.  I asked for some help and one of the guys drove Nate to a wrecking service that was just up the road a ways to get some help.  That one ended up being closed so he drove him 6 miles up the road and dropped him off at a lodge so he could make some calls to find help then he came back to tell me where he dropped him. 

Miracle 2.  There was no cell service where we were.  None!  Our family was waiting for us and we were now lost and had no transportation.  I discovered that if I held my phone up to the sky there was just enough service to get a txt msg out and then prayed that our family had their cell phones near and they were able to receive the txt.  I had no idea where we were or how to describe how they could come and find us.  All I told them is that we were close and we were praying.  That was all the information they needed because they found us!  Turns out that the cabin I went and asked for help at was connected to our families cabin by a foot bridge over a creek.  They were back to back but on different streets.  We could have just about thrown a rock from where we were to their cabin if it weren't for the forest.  My sister-in-law took the kids and walked them over to the cabin so they could play while I stayed and waited for help with my brother-in-law.  Him and his brother-in-law were trying to figure out the physics of trying to get our RV out of the ditch without it tipping over.  

Miracle 3.  While I was sitting there with the kids and praying for our family to find us one of the locals drove up and after giving a whistle of "boy that's a fine predicament you're in there"  he offered up what I thought was information only to make me feel more stupid.  He said, "it's too bad you didn't just go straight up that hill instead of turning because it is a loop that takes you right back down to this road just a ways up."  At this point I was trying to keep from crying in front of this man so I was thinking that information was useless now.  He offered his luck and told me about the wrecking place that Nate was already on his way to.  When the wrecking truck finally showed up an hour later the guy got out of his truck and started scratching his head because he didn't know what kind of angle he could get to get this darn RV out of the ditch because the RV was blocking the road so he couldn't pass by to get to the other side......  Enter "useless" information......  I had a sudden remembrance of the conversation I had with the nice gentleman about the road being a loop.  The truck could back up down the road to the entrance of the loop and come around on the other side of the RV to get the proper angle for pulling us out.  My brother-in-law hopped in his vehicle so he could guide the truck to prevent him from getting stuck as well.

The wrecking service hooked up a loop chain around the axle and the wheel and just pulled the RV right out of the ditch and onto the road.  Nothing broke in the process and we were off on our merry way with 400 dollars less than we started with.  We are pretty lucky that no one was injured and there seems to be no damage to our beloved RV.  We got a great story out of it and met some really nice people along the way.  Most importantly we can say that miracles do happen.  They happen all the time.   Sometimes you get a few little events that turn into one overall success story and sometimes you get one big event.   When things happen that should have or could have turned out a different way you need to give proper credit and recognize things for what they are, miracles.

Sunshine and Rainbows

While sifting through the massive pile on my desk I came across this very sweet thank you book that I received from Jordyn's 1st grade class last year.  I was presented with this book full of thank you notes on the last day of school that the kids had written me.  I volunteered in the classroom a couple times a month with the exception of a few month break when I had surgery on both of my feet.  When I was finally able to handle all the squatting that is done while volunteering  another mother had taken over my day.   There isn't enough to do for 2 moms and there wasn't another day I had available so it got awkward there for a bit.  The teacher kept telling me that she wanted me there and she would work something out, but I kept showing up only to see this other mom there already.  There is nothing I dislike more than my time being wasted.  I have no real burning desire to be in a classroom for a few hours each week except that it means so much to my kids for me to be there.  I had thrown in the towel and left it that whenever the teacher needed me on that specific day, she should just send a note home with Jordy and I would be happy to come in.  Fighting with another mom over who gets to volunteer is just absolute sillyness and I wanted no part.  Besides,  I couldn't go on my day for awhile so it is only fair that my day was filled.  Well, the teacher was persistent and I went back into the classroom and on some field trips at the end of the year.  

Who wouldn't want to go in and see your buddies and be their biggest cheerleader a couple times a month and receive such sweet letters like this?  I only included a couple because they were saying the same things.  I think it is so cute that you can tell which kids were sitting next to each other by what pictures they drew or what they decided to say.  The 2 boys on there that don't have pictures mean the most because I really worked with those boys because they both had focus difficulties.  The fact that they even wrote down some words on a piece of paper for me is awesome!  The one with the rainbow and stars was from my wild little buddy.  We always got along great in the classroom, but when we went to the zoo together and he was in my group he had lots of love to give.  He is a hugger.  I got lots of hugs from him and while at the zoo when he wasn't off being crazy or kicking his shoes as high in the air as he could while I would shout out warnings to passersby he would just leap out of nowhere into my arms.  Literally.  He would climb up on a wall and the next thing I knew he was flying through the air for me to catch him.  We also had an interesting lunch conversation in which he told me that his brother was in jail.  Alrighty.  I still laugh when I think of that day.  I am truly surprised I came away from that day without a permanent twitch.  lol  It was such a joy and so much fun to be in the class with all of these sweet kids. I love walking down the halls of the school or walking into the classroom and see the kids' faces light up and run to me and give me a hug and squeal "Hi, Mrs Ivey" or "Hi, Jordyn's Mom".  

My Man

*Note* This post was originally posted back in November. Unsure of who actually reads this blog, I took it down so as to not invite speculation. Things in the practice have indeed changed and Nate and his partner have gone separate ways.  It was a very civil divorce. :0)
Nate has been going hunting in CO for the last 5 years or so with his business partner. His partners family lives in Co so they know the country well. Up until this year Nate hasn't been able to shoot an elk. This year he wanted it bad and was really hoping that this was his year. On the last day of the hunt he finally got his chance, took the shot, and got him right in the heart! I couldn't be happier for him. He felt a bit anticlimactic about the whole thing and couldn't decide which felt better; shooting an elk finally, or having a shower after 4 days. It is really fun watching someone achieve something that they have worked so hard for and then finally achieved. Awesome! Just look at how happy he is!! Too bad I have to live with the European mount of the poor thing hanging on a wall in my house now though.

I think that this particular hunt is a bit bitter sweet. I'm not sure that he will get another opportunity to go hunting with his business partner. I don't really want to go into much detail. because if this were a regular journal that wouldn't be read until 10 or 20 years from now, I would write down all the dirty little details, but since it is up for public scrutiny right now, today.....I will refrain. Boy, that was a mouthful for not saying anything..... :) What I will say is that having a 50/50 partnership with someone is like being married to them. You are tied to that person in every way. Owning your own business is a pretty big roller coaster ride in and of itself. I have no idea what the future holds for the practice as it stands today, but right now it is very unsure. Part of my brain tells me that this is the kind of stuff that makes life fun and exciting, the other half says, just put me in a coma and wake me up when it's over. Now add to this the whole health care debacle and everything is a mess! What a big 'ole steaming pile of poo that is!

The only thing that I know for certain is that life is short and we've got to enjoy it while we are here. The last thing I need is for when I die to be told all the things I could have done if I would have just relaxed and had a little faith. I like to refer to it as the V8 moment where I hit my head and say, you mean I coulda had that?????