Broken Teeth, Women's Conference, Lubs, Learner's Permit, Soccer, Baseball, Good News, Nachos

The last 10 days have flown by and we have stayed busy.  I appear to be Sophie's favorite person in the house.  Whenever the kids let her out of her kennel in the morning after going potty outside she makes a beeline to find me.  The other day, although I was awake, I hadn't quite gotten out of bed yet.  She came and made herself quite comfortable on my lap and stared at me like this until I started to pet her.  How can you resist such a face?

 We had some friends, the Einzingers', over last Saturday night.  They happen to be really big Utah fans.  Aaron thought he'd be funny and put their littlest on the couch and put our BYU blanket over the top.  Aaron snapped a picture before they noticed--haha!  Aaron's trying to teach him the right while he's still young--haha!

 We played games and had some adult conversation while the kids all played together.  However, Josh and Hailey think they are old enough to play games with the adults.  We let them play and it was pretty fun.  We still played some games without them because they still aren't real adults yet, right?!   It was a fun night.  I even got some Drew lubs at the end of the night, too, which was really awesome.  I miss sweet baby lubs...

Noah has a friend that is really cute.  Whenever it is time for him to go home they give each other a big hug to say goodbye.  It is really sweet.

We have to watch out for this friend since Noah has given him the code to our front door lock.  There have been a few times where he has walked right in to our house without knocking first.  It has been quite a shock the first few times.  I was just glad all of us were dressed--you just never know with all these boys and one girl running around to their different activities.  You can catch them in different states of dress sometimes so I am glad that wasn't the case the few times Jesse has walked right in.  We have since taken away Noah's code, so I am hoping this solves that problem.  We will see...

Josh has been begging to get his Learner's permit ever since his 15th birthday a few weeks ago.  I have put it off because Josh has to get a medical release form signed by his doctor saying he is safe to drive although he has had a seizure within the last 6 months.  When I actually called to ask about it they said he could get his Learner's permit and then we have 70 days afterward to get the medical release form signed.  Wahoo!  The next day Aaron took Josh down to get it done.  Josh passed the written exam in the second try (he said he just skimmed the questions on the first time around and didn't really read them all the way through so no wonder he didn't pass the first time).  He is legal.  Although he is safe from a medical standpoint that doesn't mean he's safe from a teenage decision making standpoint--haha!  For better or worse he now has his Learner's permit. 

 Aaron took him out driving afterward and let's just say that Josh will be needing lots of practice.  I am just nervous for him to be practicing with our nice cars....I am in the market for an older, reliable running car--especially after seeing him practice on our cars....  I feel a few more gray hairs coming on for me and Aaron.  All jokes aside though, he really didn't do that bad with driving the first time.  He just needs practice.

Soccer finished up this last week.  One of Noah's games got rained out, but I was able to go to the other one.  Here Noah is throwing in the ball from the sideline:

 Daniel finished off strong.  It was Daniel's last time to play city soccer since he is now aged out of their program.  We are still trying to decide whether to seek out AYSO or to sign him up for a comp. league.  Daniel is still undecided so we will figure that out eventually.  It was fun to watch him play, though. Now baseball is in full swing.  No rest for the weary!

After Sarah got her braces off the orthodontist told us she would benefit greatly from getting a Frenectomy.  A Frenectomy (according to Google) is a simple oral surgical procedure that eliminates the presence of a frenum in the mouth. A frenum is a muscular attachment between two tissues found inside of the cheeks and lips and inside the mouth and gums. There are two kinds of frenum in the mouth, the labial frenum and the lingual frenum.  

If you look in the picture (this is not Sarah's mouth, but it still shows what Sarah's mouth looked like) it is the fibers in-between the front teeth that need to be severed.  This prevents the front teeth from being pushed apart which is really important since she just got her braces off and I would like to keep her teeth aligned.

Her dentist was willing to do the procedure so we made the appointment and took her in.  Here she is waiting to get it done:

Matthew had his dentist appointment at the same time.  It was hard for them to clean his teeth since he was such a chatter box.  Thankfully he didn't have any cavities--wahoo!

Here's Sarah after her Frenectomy.  You can see where they cut the fibers in-between her teeth and up to the front of her lip:

Thankfully, it stayed numb until that evening and she did great with just some ibuprofen which was nice.

The next morning I gave her some ibuprofen and sent her off to school.  I really hate calls from the school so when I got a call a few hours later from the school I dreaded answering thinking it was just Sarah saying her mouth hurt.  Well the call was from Sarah's PE teacher letting me know that she had fallen during PE and hit her mouth on some cement stairs which broke off her two front teeth.  DOH!!  I was close by and was able to pick her up quickly.  Thankfully the dentist took her right in and X-rayed them to see how extensive the damage was.  Here Sarah is on the way to the dentist:

She was crying, but I handed her my phone and told her to take a selfie so she could see what her mouth/broken teeth looked like.  For some reason she smiled during the selfie, but she really was crying.  Not only did she break her teeth she also cut her mouth, too, which was bleeding quite a bit.  Sarah stayed pretty calm, but was crying.  After they took the X-rays and gave her to shots to numb up her mouth we had a few minutes just to ourselves.  She leaned over and quietly asked me if we could say a prayer.  For sure!!  Since she had just been there the day before they remembered what movie she had been watching the day before and got that playing for her again.

We said a little prayer and then the staff came back a few minutes later and got started repairing her teeth.  The X-rays showed that she didn't break the teeth off above the nerve so they were going to try and repair them and build them up using dental bonding.  The dentist said this was the most conservative approach and it would give her teeth some time to heal.  Not only were they broken, but they were pretty loose, too.  The break was just below the nerve so although it didn't technically get into the nerve it still could have damaged the nerve so this would give it some time to see what would happen to the teeth.  The dentist said this would either work or the next step would be getting some crowns done for the two front teeth.  I am crossing my fingers this works because crowns are really invasive and expensive, too.  I am hoping this princess won't need any crowns!!

Here's the after:

Now we just wait and see and hope that this works.  I feel bad because Sarah LOVES apples and couldn't eat an apple without cutting it up while she had braces on.  Now with these new teeth she won't ever be able to take a bite out of an apple without cutting it up for life. BOO!!  Since her mouth was bleeding quite a bit they did their best with building up her teeth, but to do a perfect job they need to keep the teeth dry.  Well since she was bleeding so much that was difficult to do.  The dentist said because of that she may need some touch ups in the next few days.  We will see. Poor girl!  Too bad she had just gotten her braces off a few weeks ago.  DOH!! Horrible timing to say the least!

Aaron has been traveling A LOT lately. It has been a bit hard on me and kiddingly I kept asking him when my 'business trip' would be.  I know that Aaron works while he travels, but he at least gets a break from the cooking, cleaning and fighting kids and that is what I meant when I asked when my 'business trip' would be.  Anyway I got a chance this past week.  A while ago a few ladies in my church ward decided to get together to attend Women's Conference in Provo over May 3-4.  We signed up and got to stay in the dorms while we were there.  We headed out Wednesday night, checked in to our rooms and got settled around 10 pm.  However, we didn't get to bed until about 2 am--haha!  The next morning we grabbed breakfast and headed over to start the day in the Marriott Center with the first speaker.  After that we split up and attended three different classes throughout the day spread all around campus.  There was a ton of walking you can see--I felt like student all over again--haha!

Day 1:

 Day 2:

We then ended the day in the Marriott Center again for the closing speaker.  Afterward  there were many service opportunities you could participate in.  We decided to help pack food for the church humanitarian effort.  We got to wear these sweet red hair nets:

We helped pack meals for awhile.  As we finished we snapped a group picture of all of us with our awesome red hair nets:

Afterward we went to a Women's Conference concert then we went back to our rooms about 10 pm.  However, again we didn't get to bed until 2 am because we had so much to talk about--haha!  When you get 6 tired ladies together in the wee hours of the morning things get pretty funny!  The next morning we grabbed breakfast and headed out to our classes which lasted until 5 pm that afternoon.  We then grabbed dinner together and then headed home.  It was a wonderful experience.  They had so many classes you could choose from it was hard to choose.  I went to Seeking and Receiving Personal Revelation, More Strength to O'ercome (Dealing with Failure), A People Prepared to Meet Christ, The Sabbath is a Day of Blessings, The Prophet Joseph :"Thy Friends Do Stand by Thee",  and Simplify Your Life. They were all great classes and hopefully I can put some of the ideas I learned from them in my life.  I was grateful for my 'Business Trip' because I truly needed a break.  I am now ready to return to my crazy life!

Aaron on the other hand got to experience what I experience when he is on a business trip.  He had drive the kids from here to there and make sure homework got done, piano practicing got done, cooking and meals were eaten, and try to keep the house relatively picked up.  I think it made him appreciate what I get done behind the scenes--haha!  Thursday was the craziest day for him.  He had to be home to make sure Matthew got to his after school program, Sarah got to dance, Josh got to his meet and Daniel got to his last soccer game.  All these things happened around the same time so he struggled.  Luckily G&G T were able to help out.  While Josh's meet was finishing they were able to take Sarah, Noah and Daniel to Daniel's soccer game while Aaron stayed at the meet to watch Josh.  Josh did great.  He qualified for the North End meet which is this week which is a first for him in his three years of track.  He's pretty excited about it.  Yay! Aaron was able to make it to the last half of Daniel's soccer game which he was excited to watch.  Daniel scored 3 goals in that game--Wahoo!  The next day was just as busy for Aaron.  He did call and complain a bit about how crazy that schedule was, but I wasn't very sympathetic, though.  I am glad he got to experience it, but also that he was willing to take it all on to let me attend Women's Conference.  I am already asking when my next 'business trip' will be--haha!

We also got some other good news!  Daniel who was nominated by his peers, aced his interview and landed a place on the Hope Squad for Jr. High next year.  The kids that help run the Hope Squad are easy to talk to, friendly, and responsible so it was awesome that Daniel was picked.  It is a bit daunting for him since the Hope Squad to to help prevent suicide in students.  Daniel is a bit nervous about it, but I said for him to at least try it out and to attend the meetings.  If it becomes too much for him we will reevaluate.  I think it is great they offer this club, but also it is sad that so many kids struggle with this topic.  I am hoping it is a good experience for him.

We got another letter about Josh.  Josh got invited to attend the Evening of Excellence.  The letter states, "Dear Parents, It is with great pleasure that we inform you that your student has been chosen as one of a select group of ninth grade students to receive an award at our annual Evening of Excellence.  Each year, students are honored in a variety of categories for their exemplary abilities, talents, or academic achievements.  Your student has been chosen to receive at least on of these honors for the 2017-2018 school year..."  We don't know what Josh will be honored for yet, but I am pretty excited to find out.  Wahoo, Josh!!

Matthew has been keeping busy as the 'Human GPS' as he calls himself.  He has begged and begged and begged the Administration at the high school to let him give updates on traffic and road construction. I think he finally wore them down.  They let him do an announcement Friday morning.  On the way to school while listening to the radio he made me play every traffic announcement/update so he could be prepared for his morning announcements for the school.  What a crazy kid!!  He gave his first traffic update during the morning announcements at school.  Someone recorded him so he could have them text it to me to watch.  He gave the updates almost verbatim of what he heard on the radio that morning--haha!  He also did tell everyone if they have any questions to let him know or his teachers at school.  I'm sure that surprised the teachers since they weren't expecting to hear that!

They again let him give another traffic update/announcement during the school wide assembly Friday.  He was so excited about it.  Prom was Saturday and he took his job as the 'Human GPS' pretty seriously.  He was by the phone all day just in case someone needed directions somewhere.  What a crazy kid.  We were able to tear him away from he phone for a few hours to go to Lagoon, though.  He is a pretty funny kid!

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo we had a HUGE pan of cheesy, shredded pork nachos with sour cream/salsa dipping sauce.  It was pretty yummy and pretty quick to fix.  That's a huge plus in my opinion!!

This whole pan lasted less than 5 minutes before it was entirely consumed.  You can mostly blame the tween/teenage boys if you were wondering....