Wordless Wednesday- Camping, How I REALLY feel.

Rockin' Girl Blogger

I've been nominated not once, but twice for this award!
Don't Give Him Crackers, and When 2 Became 3 both nominated me.
I think they are both just sort of, um, in shock, that I have 7 kids, lol. Its really not all that different than their one child, its just multiplied 7 fold and just a tad more of everything. More diapers, more laundry, more cooking, more cleaning, more love. But really, its just the same as one. Really. I wouldn't lie to you.
This award is going all over and I don't know who hasn't been nominated yet, lol. Except JAM, but I don't really think he qualifies.
I don't want to leave anyone out, I love all the blogs on my blogroll, and they all rock for one reason or twenty.

1. So, here is a new blog for you to go check out, Movers4life, in this post you can see that she is definitely a Rockin' Girl Blogger in the making! (I wish she'd change the blog name to "staying4life" but whatever)
2. New to my blogroll, but someone I have enjoyed reading, is Julie of Love, Laughter, and Laundry. She rocks, too!
3. No Diet Coke for Mommy is another wonderful blog!
4. Babysteps is one of my favorite reads, she is out of internet in her new house, so I'm sort of in withdrawal.
5. Heart of the Prairie is a great homeschooling blog! I really enjoy her and we email back and forth, too.
6. And Laughing Mommy is also another of my favorite blogs. I've been reading her blog almost since I started blogging.
7. Bring Your Own Cheese, The Whine is Free, not just because she is my mom, but I think she has some great stories to tell, and she needs to get her priorities straight and blog more instead of taking care of kids and working and stuff like that! Go ask her about working on a scalloping boat. And ask for pictures, too.

Romans 8:28

This is our youth pastor and his family. Chad and Nikki and their two little C's. (she hasn't given them blog names yet) They were at our church when we started coming regularly, not yet married.

I was so excited to find out they were going to have their first child, C1, and soon afterwards we found out we were having Trinity. They are 4 months apart. Within days of me announcing Sam was on his way, they announced C2 was on the way, and we were due within days of each other. C2 and Sam were born the same day, 12 hours apart.

I can't even begin to tell how much we love them. My teens have grown so much under their leadership and love and encouragement. I know that they love my kids, not just because its their job, they love our kids.

Our church sent them on a sabbatical for the summer. But one day they showed up at church again "for a youth activity." But then announced they were leaving us for their home church. We were very sad. We love them so much! But I just knew that it would be good for them to be back home and near their family.

I hate change with a passion! You have no idea! But God gave me total peace about it. And I held onto Romans 8:28 All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. I just knew that everything would be good for our church no matter what happened.

And that was the same verse the elders used when praying about a search committee for a new youth pastor.

Today at church there was a big announcement. Drum rolls and everything. The elder told how that verse had proven true and God was honoring His word and everything IS working for our good because we are called according to His purpose.

Chad and Nikkie are staying! We're not sure how it all came about, but we are so incredibly blessed and so unbelievably shocked and thrilled! I cried and cried!

My teens will have Pastor Chad for their graduations, which is a big deal to them, graduating is not the big deal for them, having Chad speak is important to them. My future teens will have Chad around, too. At least the next couple of kids. Devon is a ways from graduating and Cody joins the youth group this year. (I can't even think about having 4 kids in youth group!)

I can't think of a better reason to blog twice in one day than this!

Drew and Kaytlin are both out of town and do not know about it yet! We got a copy of the service and are going to make them watch church since they missed it today, then they get to experience it too, if they don't get a call that spills the beans first.

Nikki, you need to rename your blog now! Keepers4PEFC works! We love you guys and are overcome with joy that you are staying with us!

Sam is 8 1/2 months old!

Samuel is 8 1/2 months old already! I don't know where the time went, but I've enjoyed every minute of him.
I bought the cutest dress outfits and dress shoes for him at a yard sale, and I just had to get a picture of him in one of the outfits. So I dressed him up, in an outfit that with shoes cost me a grand total of $2! We took a long hike out to our front yard and sat on a big rock and took some snapshots. Here are some of the adorable pics we got, minus the ones where Trinity had to get in the pic.

This is what I was going for.

Found a stick!

I'm SOOOO BIG!

This is my favorite face he makes lately! I can't believe I finally got it captured!

Yes, he is darling!

He is loving this attention.

Yummy!

This is Kaytlin's friend Mary (named changed to protect the innocent) and Kaytlin. Kaytlin is so sad Mary is graduated and moving to college soon! When we first moved to our town we were living in a former church parsonage and were attending that church, but also looking around. When we visited the one we attend now and found that there was a youth group activity to a ropes course, and the youth pastor let Kaytlin go along, even though she wasn't technically old enough yet. When we got there all the seating was arranged by the kids. All the girls in the bus, the boys in that vehicle. The only room for Kaytlin was with the boys. She didn't care, she didn't know anyone anyway, she just wanted to go. But the girls in this church said "We can't let her go with the boys by herself! Here, you two go with the boys and Kaytlin will ride with us." Mary was one of the girls making those arrangements and brought Kaytlin into their circle of friends. I cried that day, and I still cry when I talk about it. Why did these teenage girls do that to someone not even of youth group age? They were raised right and they LOVE the Lord. We joined that church and have never looked back.
(excuse me, I have to go get a kleenex for my tears...... be right back)
Ok, this post had nothing to do with that at all. But looking at Mary and Kaytlin 5 years later just brought me back. Mary also taught Kaytlin to play guitar. Her family is very special to us.
Ok, the reason for the post being titled "Yummy" is because Kaytlin was at Mary's house last week and they were bored because the rain and the lightening prevented them from going boating. So they amused themselves between rain by going out in the garden and picking fresh mint and raspberries and having Mary's dad go pick them some fresh whip cream from the store. We'll just assume that after eating the concoction that he felt the trip was worth it.


This is their mint brownie extravaganza. They have crushed mint leaves in the brownies, which they split in half and filled with a layer of whip cream and chocolate chips. It was served with a topping of fresh raspberries. I was skeptical, but it was good. I normally don't even like brownies.

Random things said around here lately

Kaytlin was driving along when she turned to me and said "If the police arrest someone who has no hands, do they use handcuffs?" Out of the blue! We hadn't seen a police car or anyone with no hands.



When we were waiting on the police to write our accident report, coincidentally 10 minutes after Kaytlin had asked that question, we were all switched places in the car amusing ourselves. I decided to nurse Sam so we could get the next 1 1/2 hours of driving straight through. My niece, Morgan, turns around from the driver's seat and sees me and says "THAT'S how he EATS?" "Morgan, you've been at our house for a WEEK and you just now figured that out?"



Same trip, must have been a record funny trip, lol. We drive by a skunk smell and I say "Morgan! Did you have to fart?" and she says "Trinity and Sam are asleep, so they didn't do it." Hmm, we don't fart in our sleep? I need to tell Donnie that one, because he does it all the time.

We finally got Morgan home, hung around talking for awhile, then had to leave. We load up the car and I start it up. Trinity starts to yell at me "Don't leave Morgan at that house! Don't leave her at that house!!!" LOL They fought the whole week.

Yesterday Trinity was on a roll. She wanted to go for a walk so bad. Sam was just a royal grump because he is teething, and walks always distract him and put him to sleep. So I bribed Hope-Anne to take them for a walk by sending them to the Dairy Queen. We told Trinity to change into a short sleeve shirt, because a turtle neck in July is just not good. She changed. Then I told her to go get her hair brushed. "I hate brushing my hair, I don't wanna!" "Then you can't go to Dairy Queen." "I LOVE brushing my hair!" Crying to happy in .0003 seconds.

Then, last night she walks up to me and looks me in the eye and says "I don't wanna drink outta your boobies, I hafta drink outta the fridge." (she has not nursed since she was 9 months old, she doesn't even remember it.)

Then there is Devon. The king of avoiding work. Usually when we are working on something, he disappears. So we made up a song for him years ago, and it still fits him. The Scooby Doo theme song "Devy, Devy Doo, Where are you? We've got some work to do now." We reminded him it was his night to cook, he went down to the kitchen and soon came back up and sat on the couch. This went on a couple of times, arguing about making burgers, the pan wasn't clean, etc. Then finally, in one last attempt to get out of it he says "But there's this car, and it runs on WATER, man!" It was so funny! "Go cook!" "But it runs on WATER, WATER, man!" "Now!" "Dude, WATER." He then went and cooked us burgers.

Thursday Thirteen~ Rock, Paper, Scissors

13 new Rock, Paper, Scissors moves.

I don't know how long ago Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS) was invented, but it is typically a kids game to decide who gets to go first on something. We've all played it. You know you have!

But last week as I was blogging along, I came across a blog talking about how they were surfing through ESPN and saw an ADULT RPS championship game. This was on ESPN. This was not a game, it was a championship!

I told my husband and boys about it, saying there was a game they could all compete in. Well, on Tuesday, while sitting in the dentists office, my husband and Devon read a science magazine and found out there are hundreds more RPS moves now! I couldn't fathom this, so we looked it up. Here are 13 of those new moves. You can even get shirts and posters with the new moves on it.

1. Sword. Outclasses scissors, stabs woman and man, slays the king, impales the vampire, faster than poison.

2. Poison. Endangers the planet and the church, kills the man, woman, king, baby, duck, snake. It even knocks out the vampire.







3. Pit. Oh, this is a dangerous one! It swallows the gun and sword, engulfs poison, contains fire, and knows no law!






4. Peace. Peace is a powerful one, too. Peace protects man, woman, king, queen, even the snake! It even cleans the toilette!








5. Law. Protects the wall, prevents death, sets in stone (rock), protects man, and keeps the peace.







6. Gun. The gun breaks the law, shoots the prince, closes the school, but best of all: it shoots the spider! It doesn't get any better than that!






7. Dynamite. Well, you know it explodes! So it beats lots of thing, like all the living creatures. It breaks chains and the Law. It creates the pit. Good stuff.







8. Duck. I didn't think this one could be all that powerful. But never underestimate a duck. It flies from the wolf, its bigger than a bird, swallows diamonds and lays golden eggs. It even hides from UFO's and Aliens. But best of all: it eats the spider!





9. Camera. The camera captures things, like the community, peace, duck, even the spider!









10. Cage. Not affected by the axe, keeps the peace, and even traps the spider!












11. Computer. Now we all know this one is powerful, but it has powers that rival nature! Not only is it sexier than butter, but it can turn your brain into a turnip and prevents babies! Tell me that is not one powerful weapon!

(my pictures did not all want to cooperate!)
12. Toilette. I had to know what this one was about. It answers prayer. It stinks SKY high. It is easier than math. Pollutes the planet. And it flushes the law.
13. Video Game. It is a mental pit, confuses the baby, and entertains the man. It couldn't be more true than that! It entertains the man.

Our day trip

Wordless Wednesday is the post below this one.

Yesterday I had to bring my niece home. Its a good 2.5 hour drive each way. By the time we got to the nearest town, Sam was just livid with being stuck in his car seat just minutes after waking up. Poor guy! So we stopped at a Burger King to play in the play ground. Trinity and my niece needed the play time, too.

Here is Sam looking down at me, he did not like it at all! Scary!

Kaytlin took him through the tubes, which he liked unless she put him down in them. So she had to crawl through tubes made for 6yo's with her 16yo body while carrying a baby under her arm, lol. That's love! He didn't seem to mind the slide, too much.

He sure is smiling about being OUT of the play ground! Actually he was having fun and it was a good break. We got back in the car and he went to sleep within a couple of blocks.

We got close to where we turn out of town and I told Kaytlin to get in the other lane so she cold turn at the next light. She didn't listen to me. So I repeated it. "Get in front of that truck so you can get over, that stop light up there is our turn." She still didn't listen, she kept driving right along side the truck. Finally she listened to me! And as she was getting ahead of the truck we saw a turn lane and got confused about which one it was and she whipped in front of the truck and put on her brakes while pulling into the turn lane. She scared the you-know-what out of him and he slammed on his brakes which ended up causing him to skid into the turn lane and rear end us. We were stopped at that point and fully into the turn lane when he hit us. It was barely a bump. (and it was the WRONG turn lane)
But because he had this HOOK sticking out, and our car is made out of FIBERGLASS or something, it broke into the car. Otherwise we would have exchanged paint.
So, our trip got a 1.5 hour extension.

While we were waiting on the officer to make the report we got to see Sam broke through his very first tooth!

The mystery of his grumpiness is solved!

Our day only got better though. Donnie didn't have his insurance in his car, and I don't know why. Thankfully we did not get ticketed for that, or the broken windshield. The officer was wonderful, he encouraged Kaytlin, told her its all part of learning, if she only knew how many cars his boys have gone through cutting across traffic, too, she needs to get back behind that wheel and not be scared. He was great! Even told me how to tell her how to drive so not to stress her out..... The driver was nice. He looked like a big biker dude getting out all ticked off and started to yell at her "What did you think you were doing?" I asked him not to yell at her, and he said "I'm not swearing." I said I understood that but I did not want her yelled at. He stopped! He did not traumatize her, he was mad, but he was very good about it. I thanked him for it, I told his company about it, too.

When I got to my sister's house I called Donnie to have him call the officer with our insurance info. When he told the boys about the accident Drew fessed up to rear ending our van with our other car on Sunday! So, ALL three of our vehicles have been in accidents since Sunday. Drew broke a blinker cover and didn't even mention it to us. Uh huh. He says its Kaytlin's fault because she parked the van badly.

Wordless Wednesday Tiger Lily

Strange things are happening

Donnie's parents are getting older, which is the main reason we moved back to Minnesota 5 years ago. Donnie's dad, Phillip, had some heart surgery, and his mom, Joyce, has diabetes. We wanted to be closer so that the kids would know them and have memories of them besides Christmas every other year.
But, we knew we needed to live far enough away that none of our parents could just pop in on us! Lets just say we've had some boundary issues in the past. But that's another post, or 20.
Phillip is getting more and more frail, he's still moving along, but occasionally has something minor like, oh, almost all of his blood leaving his body. And Kaytlin hugged him last week and was shocked that although he NEVER stops eating she could feel all the bones in his body. We are afraid, seriously, that a strong winter wind will blow him off. All of their children live in or near the Twin Cities. So, lots of driving. Joyce was recently diagnosed with congestive heart failure.
So Donnie talked to her about living in our town. Phillip doesn't like the cities, and Joyce can't get enough of them. So, if they moved here, she could ride to the cities with Donnie 5 days a week if she wants, and Phillip wouldn't have the stress of it. We'd be around to check on him when she stays in the cities with the other kids. The kids would get to spend more time with them, too.
Joyce told Donnie he could look into it. And he did, a friend who works in a nursing home told him about an apartment, but there is a two year wait. So he called and left a message. Asked his men's group to pray about things with him. I don't know much of any of this at this point.
Joyce and Phillip and Donnie's sister came to see us the day after the 4th. And after they started on their way that apartment complex called returning Donnie's message. Weird. So I asked if they had something that they could see since they were coming to town, and she had something and was going to be there all day.
We walked over there. Yes, walked. Its three blocks away. I'm not kidding. We saw it, it is very similar to what they have now, but a little bigger, though less kitchen cabinets.
We asked her about a waiting list and getting on it. She said that she had that very apartment available right now. RIGHT NOW.
Well, you know, they would have to give notice at their old place. Where's that? Oh, I know the lady that runs that! Turns out that the managers of both places used to work together, some connections were made, and she said she would hold the place for them to the end of August! Application was taken and off we went.
I don't know how that happened so fast, but they are moving to our town! I'm a little apprehensive of the boundary issues, but I am really excited, too. I know that this has to be a God thing.

I'm off to return me niece to her mother, so I won't be able to blog until tonight. Whaa!!! I have a new link in my sidebar! Check out our soon to be leaving youth pastor and his wife's blog. They are moving "home" soon and we will miss them so much, but I'm very excited for them. I was hoping for a few more years with them, you know until my kids were graduated, so that's, what? 18 more years?? I know that God is going to bless us with a new pastor, Chad and Nikki will still be a part of our family, and their church will be blessed, too. We'll give him a year to establish a new dodgeball team, then we're coming up there to kick some butt!

Our date night

Donnie recently helped a friend from church make a 60th Anniversary Power Point presentation for her parents, and they worked hard for a week on it. Her husband wrote us a thank you card and gave us a gift certificate to the Rockwood Grill!

It was just too wonderful!

Donnie ordered the Walleye, which was so incredibly delicious that he didn't want to ruin it with tartar sauce or malt vinegar! If we could prepare our fish like that, we would not be practicing catch and release.

I ordered the Coconut shrimp. It was 7 pieces, and I wasn't sure it would be enough. They were so big that we had to take pictures to show just how big they are! Plus, they were even better than the Outback's!

These pics are from the camera phone. Donnie couldn't resist sneaking one of me eating, I thought he was saving the other pic he took. I am brave enough to post it, though!

It took Donnie 2 1/2 bites to eat ONE shrimp, they are that big. I only got 4 down.

I highly recommend this restaurant. The food was fabulous, the atmosphere was fun, and family friendly if you wanted to bring your kids. The waitress was fantastic, too, just the right amount of checking on us without making us feel hovered over. There were electric trains running through the place on shelves near the ceiling. It was entertaining watching them come and go from room to room.

Trinity's first Dental visit

Here's Trinity with her cutesy smile on the way to the dentist for the very first time!
How could anyone resist such an adorable smile? She melts my heart, even though you can clearly see a bit of mischief in her eyes.

All ready for "Mr. Tickle" to clean her teeth. Well, really she is not at all sure about this, but she didn't complain.

Here she is holding "Mr. Thirsty" in her hands. She gets to hold that to suck out the spit and the water they spray in her mouth.

All clean! Isn't she gorgeous!?

Here she is with her "loot" from the hygenist. Her new Cars toothbrush, some toothpaste, floss, and of course a new toy. She was very brave and didn't complain at all.

If you don't count the x-rays she wouldn't take, lol.

More contests!

Where to start??? There are so many going on that I'm going to link up to them in one post.

Pinks and Blues Girls Blog is giving away for a Vera Bradley Nantucket Navy “Little Betsy” purse with matching coin purse. Also thrown in is some Coconut Body Butter courtesy of Sheena Williams, a consultant for the Body Shop! Check out Sheena’s site for her July Buy One, Get One event and see what The Body Shop has to offer. This contest closes Monday, July 9th at 8pm EST.
5 Minutes for Mom is giving away TEN NeatReceipts Scanlizers! Check out the demo on the NeatReceipts website. This is a handy little travel scanner. It would have helped my husband so much when he was traveling for business, he could have just scanned in his receipts when he got back to his hotel room so he would be sure not to lose them. Now I would use it to scan photos and recipes and articles that I want to keep. I love to send pictures to family, and this would help me get them some extra pics.

Adventures in Babywearing is giving away The Podonbutai! A new baby wearing creation by Jenn at All Natural Mommies. I love wearing Samuel around, it makes for such a happy, contented baby! This is a three in one morph of baby wearing products. Exciting!

Mums The Word has got a rocking prize to win from XY Factory! A $25 gift certificate for their store! Kaytlin would flip if I won this prize and got Sam a t-shirt with a guitar on it!

Mama Speaks has had a great opening week and still has goodies for you to snatch up every day! Add the Mama Speaks button to your blog (the html code can be found here) ! She has so many prizes, its just too cool!

You can win a designer children's necklace at the Skimbaco Lifestyle blog! She uses the proceeds for children's charities.

Special K Family is having a great contest!! A $50 gift certificate to Splat Designs, or Amazon or a restaurant if you don't CARE about your blog design. You just need to put a button to her site on your blog. (That would be that top button on my blog!)

Whew, I think that's it! I've been on a winning streak, which I hope hasn't ended, but I hope you all will ignore the Splat Designs one because I really, really want that one! OH, ok, do it anyways!
In about 2 weeks time I have won 2 books, a onesie, a $25 Amazon gift certificate, and a Vikings pillow! The last two I had to earn, they took work! But it was worth it!

Trinity does it again!

No, she did not play in her excrement again, lol. We appear to have gotten through that, though every time I say that she does it again. So, we'll see about that in a few days......
My 5yo niece is staying with me for a week, she's almost 6, and I'm going to try to keep her another week, but fighting her mom could be scary, lol. This has been an easy week for me, Hope-Anne and Trinity have been playing constantly with Morgan! They are up late at night, and sleep in until 11am, lol. (My sister does not read my blog, so I can admit to all sorts of this stuff!)
Last night the three of them were sitting on pillows with their feet in the pillow cases and sliding down the stairs. (again, glad my sister doesn't read this!) They were having so much fun! But it was getting close to 11pm so we told them to get ready for bed, and they begged for "one more ride" down the stairs. Well, ok, of course, but just one more time.
Then we hear Trinity falling down the stairs, she's obviously not going down correctly and is screaming. We run to the stairs and pick her up. I took her in the bathroom for some better lighting to see if she is hurt. She has blood on her bottom teeth, so we were searching for where she got hurt. It took some time, but we located a tiny scratch inside her bottom lip. She was crying as we were looking for her owie, then she says, while still in tears "I need to do it again!"
Oh my heart! This child is a female Devon.
Devon had been sitting in the living room while they were sliding down the stairs saying how dumb it was to do that. But when Trinity got hurt and then wanted to do it again, he agreed to do that stupid (that means boring to him) stunt with her so she wouldn't get hurt. He gets to the bottom of the stairs and decides that's a sweet ride, and he does it again!
If the bottom of the stairs did not lead directly to a WALL, I could see them throwing themselves down the stairs like it was a Slip and Slide.

My trip to the dentist

I hate going to the dentist. Its a huge deal to me. Traumatic deal to me. Even taking the kids is trying. I finally found a wonderful dentist, walking distance, even. (plus he's a neighbor, lives two doors down) My husband's company was bought out by Symantec Corp, and in the merging they took on the other company's dental coverage. And we are back on Metlife, which is miserable. And our fabulous, close dentist is not on that plan. Its not that I don't appreciate having coverage, I do, but they are much more difficult to deal with for dentists, so few want to work with them. Thus, making finding a dentist difficult, at best. And their website is difficult to deal with, so I couldn't log in and find one. And their phone is a mess, you can't talk to a person unless you know some secret code.

Needless to say, we skipped the dentist visits for way too long. I finally found one that we can go to, 30 minutes away!

I take Kaytlin and Hope-Anne there because they both have toothaches. Kaytlin had a cavity on a baby tooth that the dentist didn't want to mess with because it was going to "fall out any day now." But it didn't. For 2 years. It just got worse and worse, until she tried some major mouth wash that crumbled her tooth! So we had to get it removed. She is 16, and still had that baby tooth. Why? Because the permanent tooth turned completely sideways and didn't push it out.

Do you know what that means? Braces, yes, but not just braces. Braces to open the space up. Then oral surgery to cut into her gums and put a metal brace on the tooth with a gold chain hanging out of her gums. Then another visit to the dentist to torture her by pulling the chain and winding it until the tooth comes down. This is not your standard braces wearing time frame, this is at LEAST 26 months. And how many mortgages on our home to pay for it????

Ok, so Donnie takes her for her ortho, so I didn't have to die from sticker shock or traumatize Kaytlin with all my questions to the ortho.

Now its time for the rest of the crew to get their cleanings. I made all 5 appointments together, they loved it and it was easier for me to make ONE trip that far. Drew didn't want to go, he had "work" to do, and the van decided not to work, so I had to take the car. Drew got to stay home so we would all fit.

All the way there I'm thinking: They are going to make me get my teeth cleaned in his place, I know it. Nope, I'm not doing it. (I'm getting a bit tense at this point)

Now you know what happened next, right?

I'm filling out paperwork for the kids and ME (now I'm a bit queasy), and Trinity goes back for her first ever visit, but they couldn't get the x-rays to work with her. She did great with the cleaning, but needs a pediatric dentist to get the x-rays and one cavity. I have pics I'll post another day.

Hope-Anne and Devon are next up. I know Devon is going to get an ortho visit because his baby tooth and permanent tooth are both in the same spot, so he'll need it pulled and something to bring the tooth in the right place. I'm not looking forward to that. Sure enough, ortho orders. How are we going to afford this?

Hope-Anne..... they gave me ortho orders for her, too!!! I'm not putting braces on her at 10. But they want to make sure they can pull the baby teeth that have cavities without causing spacing issues later. They do think braces for the gap in her front teeth, but I know that is easily fixed the same way I had it done, snipping that little thingy in your top lip.

So then its Cody and I. I'm a little freaked out, I don't do dentists well. I had some bad military dentist that not only hurt me so bad I was a puddle of tears while 7 months pregnant, they said they did two root canals, that I sat through, by the way, that they didn't actually do, so my teeth crushed and had to be pulled. And then I have puked for a total of 16 months with my pregnancies, which stripped the calcium out of my teeth while washing them in stomach acids hourly or more.

Lets just say I have some gagging issues and leave it at that, but by the time we got through the xrays, I was near to passing out. They did not have time to clean my teeth after that and I need to go back. (I purposely neglected to tell them that I will not come back!)

So I walk over to Cody's room to see how its going and I immediately inform them that if they are sending him to the ortho, they better not say it today because I'll lose it! They said that they will "eventually" need to send him, but its not urgent. He has an overbite, but it doesn't stop him from eating and he does not look weird or anything. His teeth are nice and straight.

I left there shaking and in tears. (and with several appointments for myself since they are smart about patients who don't like to go) They gave me an application to get interest-free credit for dental stuff and they say "You should apply for $3000, I'm sure it'll be under that though." That made me sick right there, because she isn't even talking about Kaytlin's braces which are almost that much OUR COST.

Thursday Thirteen #24

Thirteen Things about Lisa13 things to make teen drivers safeIn light of the deaths of 3 teens and a young ladythis week, I am looking for ways to makemy kids more safe in the car. Here is the news story. 1. Set an example for them. Don't speed, don't use your cell phone while driving, keep the music at a reasonable level. Things you want them to do. 2. Start them out with little privileges and gradually add them. No night driving at first, no friends in the car,etc. 3. Make them responsible for things. Have them pay for the vehicle, not to own it, but to want to take care of it. They should be paying their insurance, gas, some upkeep,etc, so they want to take care of things. Better grades means less insurance out of their pockets! 4. No passengers for 6 months. I, personally, did not do this. My first, and only so far, driver is really responsible, and we let him drive his siblings, and moved to friends one at a time. His siblings reported him to be very conscientious and safe. 5. No nighttime driving for at least 6 months. Teen's crash risk goes up at night. Start them with a curfew, 9:30 for a few months, then 10, etc. 6. Don't let them have their own car. If they use the family car parents still have control of the vehicle, making it easier to decide on the conditions of use: seat belt, cell phone, etc. 7. Teach them to be aware of their surroundings. They need to be looking beyond the car in front of them. They need time to react, at 16 they take longer than even an 18yo to respond. 8. Make them wear their seat belts, even when they are in the backseat! It needs to be a habit. I'm shocked at how many people don't wear them. 9. For the first year all driving should have a purpose, to work, to school, to a friend's house. No "cruising" with friends. Most accidents happen while joy riding. 10. Teach them to not drive while tired. Let them know its ok to call you and find an alternate way home. 11. No one wants to believe their teen will drink, much less drink and drive. But I have made sure that all my kids know that I would come get them without a fight if they find themselves in that situation. Its never worth the risk of driving! How about an Intoxalock? They can't start the car without a clean breath test. 12. Consider having a driving "contract" with your teen. Have written rules and the consequences to breaking them, with signatures! Make sure to put in there that parents make the final decision. 13. Consider getting DriveOK for the car to monitor speed and position. It sends messages to your cell if the car goes faster than allowed. There are several versions out there to choose from. If they don't go where they say they are, you'll know it! I know I'll be getting this for at least one of my drivers.

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MN Vikings

I'm a Vikings fan, I admit it. Its not that I watch football, because I only watch one or two games a year, but I'm loyal. I grew up in Minnesota and Minnesotans love their Vikings! My dad was a fan, I speak of him as though he is dead, but really he's just a traitor and gave up on them, don't hate him, he is getting old and feeble, and besides, I already kicked him. My husband is a fan, and a rule in our house is: You are a Vikings fan or you find somewhere else to live.

So there you have it! What else can I do?

We wear our purple and gold on game days. We check to see if they win or not, and my husband watches them most of the season. We search yard sales for Vikings clothes for the baby, the boys, even us girls sometimes. We display our Viking's Fan post in the yard year round. Even when they lose. We even tried to get rid of a girlfriend of our son because she was a Packer Backer!!! Evil!!! (Our pastor is, too, but we somehow adore him anyway)

Soon it'll be that time of year! Diary of 1 is having a Sports logo contest in conjunction with TeamMascot. The first 20 people to blog about their favorite team and link up to here will win some merchandise from her store. I love the pillow picured here! These mugs are pretty wonderful, too!

There are many other great sports logo merchandise, also. Take a look-see!

Please pray for this tragedy.

Our town was struck by yet another tragedy of teenagers dying in car accidents. Today, two teen girls from our town, another girl from a neighboring town, were struck by a semi, and then somehow another car ended up in the mix, and a 24yo is also dead. Here is the news story.
My oldest two children have been burying at least one friend a year for a few years now. Kaytlin lost two friends today. She has been close with both of these girls. One was a class mate of Drew's, though he was not overly close with her. Her parents were in Niagara Falls when the accident happened.
I'll give more information later, but please pray. This is going to really hurt the 10th and 11th graders of our town.
I do know the two girls in our town were both born again Christians.

Wordless Wednesday #12 Filling Daddy's Shoes

Drew, wearing his father's Army uniform. He actually is a bit too tall for it!

Booboo City

We were out shopping for a present for a kiddo's birthday party and Sam was sitting nicely in his safe shopping cart protector thingy, happily playing. Hope-Anne and Trinity were walking with me, so nicely. Until we need to pick out tissue paper.
Trinity decided to amuse Sam by jumping up and down in front of the cart. She ended up smashing her lip on the cart handle. She sliced her lip open good! Right through that little thing in the upper inside of your lip! Isn't it nasty? Sorry about the bloody face!

It appears Trinity got a bit of a jealous bug in her later in the day because she got an irresistible urge to push Sam down.
Now he has a cut and fat lip! That's the worst owie he's ever had! He's a trooper, though. I had to fight him off the camera to take these pics. He kept trying to grab and eat it while I had to hold him and the digital camera still long enough for it to decide to snap the pic. Doing anything with an 8 month old is like trying to dress an octopus!

He didn't like me holding his head in place trying to get a pic of the cut inside. That was worse that getting the cut if you ask him.
He has turned into quite the little monkey! He's crawling all over the place, walking along furniture, digging in the toybox, eating ANYTHING he can get his hands on. Donnie brought him up to my work last week (temping for our church secretary) so I could nurse him while I had lunch. He got a whiff of my burger and decided there was no way mamma's milk was as good as that smell. So he sat up and grabbed my burger and got his huge mouth around my double cheese burger and took a hunk off it! He chewed that burger to bits with just his bare gummers! And loved every bite of it! He also LOVES spaghetti-o's. He says "MMMMMMM, Mmmmmmm" as he eats them, its so cute!