DDS (Dumb Dental Stupidity)

Before school started I took the kids to the dentist to get their teeth cleaned. The dentist told me that Zac needed to have 2 fillings done and Emily needed 3. He also said that they each needed 4 sealants done. We made an appointment to come back and they gave me a paper with how much it would cost. It was going to be almost $800 (we don't have dental insurance).

I got home and I remembered that our medical insurance has some type of dental discount with it. I looked it up and sure enough, if we go to certain dentists on their list we get a discount. I looked up the discounts for what my kids needed done and figured I would save about $200. So we cancelled the first appointment we made and scheduled new ones with a dentist on the list.

We went to their new appointment on Tuesday. He looked at the x-rays I brought in and the paper that showed what the other dentist said needed to be done. He looked at the kids teeth and said that he didn't see any cavities and that they each only needed 2 sealants. At first I was like "WOO HOO!!!" 'cause I was so excited about not having to spend a fortune. But then I got really mad at the first dentist we saw for being such and idiot and I asked this dentist why he thought the other one would have told us we needed to have so much work done. He gave me some mumbo jumbo answer and then he said "They are fine until their next check up in 6 months." And I suddenly went, "HUMMMPH?".

What did he mean, "They will be fine until their next check up in 6 months."???? Well our appointments were his last ones for the day and it was 5:30 by the time he finished (our appointment was at 3:00 and it too 2 1/2 hours to do 4 sealants which should take about 15 minutes each). As we were standing at the front desk to pay, he was leaving the office for the day.

So I am really mad right now, and I don't know who to be mad at. Should I be mad at the first dentist because he was trying to do unnecessary procedures on my young children to make an extra buck? Or should I be mad at the second dentist because maybe my kids cavities were really small and he was in a hurry to go home and figured they would be fine until their next visit?

There is a local TV news person who people call when they feel like they are getting cheated. He helps them get to the bottom of it. I am debating weather or not to call him. I don't know, what do you think?

Do you see why I have an EXTREME DISLIKE for dentists???

Monday Morning Musings

Yes! Finally Addison slept through the night again (something she has been doing since she was 2 weeks old) and she took longer than 1/2 hour nap since we had our little hospital adventure.

It is a little unsettling to have the smoke alarm in your girls room go off at 4 am. Thankfully nothing was actually on fire. But it was a little freaky. I made Steve check downstairs and then feel the ceiling to make sure there wasn't a hidden flame somewhere. And hey, we are all still alive and well this morning!

Ahhh....Labor Day. No school. And Zac and Emily starting off the day by waking up ready to kill each other. And it has only gotten better......Thankfully they are going 4 wheelin' with Steve and my dad today. What time were they leaving?

Every dentist I have gone to in my adult life has been an idiot. And the one I went to on Friday was the biggest one of all.

I asked Steve this morning if he would consider going back to school to become a dentist. 'Cause as far as I can tell (oh, I can hear Zac and Em going at it upstairs as I type) all you have to do is go to a 3 week seminar and then pay someone a couple hundred bucks for a paper to hang on your wall. (no offense to any dentists reading this) And guess what? Steve said he had been thinking the same thing. He said if that guy I went to was such an idiot, surely HE could be a dentist too. If we were both thinking it, it must be meant to be. I wonder if I can change Zac's mind from paleontologist to dentist. No, I want my son to grow up to be smart.

We set up a folding table in our kitchen last night for Zac's B-day dinner. I am taking bets on how long it will be up before we take it down. Last time it went up it was there for at least 2 weeks. I am betting this time it will be up till Friday.

I ate so many strawberries last night, part of me wonders if it will come out through my milk and if we will end up in the ER again.

I was getting Em Frosted Flakes for breakfast and for some reason I really wanted some. Nasty. I will never make that mistake again.

I think it is a cruel trick to play on mothers. Have kids start school and go for a week and then give them a 4 day weekend. Yeah, they are off tomorrow too for some reason unbeknownst to me.

I would really just like to have 1 day off. One day of not cleaning, cooking, laundry, washing 100 hands and faces. breaking up fights. You know what, I would even settle for 1/2 day. Fat chance.

So, it has been about an hour since I typed this and I feel the need to come back and clarify my last statement. I don't want anyone to think that I am not grateful for the life I have. I LOVE my life. It is the life I have chosen and the life I want and I would not trade it for anything. I just want to do something for one day that doesn't HAVE to be done. Sometime I feel like everything I do is something that HAS to be done and not something I WANT to do. But than that is my own fault for not carving out time for things like that. Anyway, we are getting a little deep for Monday Morning Musings so I better go now. Have a GREAT holiday.

Halloween 2013

The Monday before Halloween we carved pumpkins.  The only finished product I got a picture of was Aubrey's pumpkin.

On Halloween Aubrey and Addy had a costume parade at their school.  You can read all about that fun time by clicking here.  Later that day the Jr. High had a dance/party which Emily claims was horrible.  I wasn't there because I was helping in Addy's class with her party.

That evening we went to our friends, Ethan and Allison's, house for "Gross Dinner".  There wasn't much gross about it.  It was all fabulous!  I had asked Ethan what I could bring and he said "Something gross that we can eat."  I interpreted that literally.  I should have known better.  Ethan is a professional chef and his idea of gross was  awesomely funky fun yet fancy Halloween themed food.  I was kinda embarrassed to bring in our bloody fingers (complete with fingernails) and our bloody used band-aids (graham crackers with cream cheese centers and red food coloring).  Ethan's food did not disappoint.  It was so delicious! 

Our cute little neighborhood bunch.

At the very most last minute Aubrey decided she wanted to be a mime.   She made a rather cute mime if I do say so myself.

Addy had been planning on being a little girl zombie for months.

Zac went as Uncle Si Robertson.  

(yes I know that is a Phil beard but that was the only beard I could find after going to several stores)

Emily was informed by Mario and Luigi the night before that she was going to be Princess Peach.  Thankfully Allison had a Princess Peach costume we could borrow.

After dinner we all went Truck or Treating around the neighborhood.

We live in the most awesome neighborhood for trick or treating.  It is so fun to walk around and visit with everyone.  Here are the kids at one of our neighbors where they had to play a game in order to get a full sized candy bar.  Then at our friendly neighborhood dentist's house we not only got toothbrushes but we also were treated to freshly made scones and delicious raspberry butter.

Then we stopped at another neighbors house and got the scoop on why the police had to make a visit to the hood. We were there for about 20 minutes and totally lost all our kids.  Thankfully we found them down the street at the neighborhood Halloween night gathering place having hot chocolate.  It was a fun night with friends!

Monday Morning Musings - Sweet Home Alabama

HOME AT LAST!

We have been gone from home for 17 days. SEVENTEEN DAYS! Do you hear me?! That is a long dang time to be away! We had a fabulous trip! We were so blessed to be able to go to St. Louis and spend time with Steve's family, and then to Dallas to spend time with mine. Minus my sister Kristy who was not able to get a flight out of the Moscow airport :( We made so many fun memories that we will cherish forever. I finally finished my St. Louis posts, now I gotta get the Dallas ones done.

We pulled in last night around 10:30 PM exhausted. But alas, there is no rest for the weary. Steve being gone for 17 days from his business, he has a lot of catching up to do. And a lot of money collecting to do, 'cause I'm tellin' you right now, we are FLAT BROKE! And it's almost time for him to pay his guys again. I wouldn't mind a little cash comin' my way either, you know what I'm sayin'?

The kids begged me to let them stay home from school today and let them rest. Yeah. Right. I am sending them TO school so I can rest. Not really. Like I said before, no rest for the weary. I have 17 days of mail to open. Bills to pay (oh wait, there is no money for that, never mind). Toilets to clean (toilets sitting for 17 days, not so pretty). Suitcases to unpack. Clothes to wash. A nasty disgusting van to clean out. Groceries to buy. Food to make (please no fast food for the next 2 months. At least!) . Christmas decorations to take down. A house to clean. A wedding reception. In my house. In 5 days. Holy smokers, what was I thinking!?! I gotta figure out where we left off with everything. I know we have dentist appointments and ortho appointments and Ski Club starting this week. Homework to figure out. We literally stuck the kids in the car on Friday the 17th of Dec. when they got out of school and started driving and got home just in time for them to go right on back.

I have come to the realization that I love being able to go to Steve's hometown and my hometown to visit, but I could never ever live in either one of those places. I love where I live and I wouldn't change it for anything. For one thing, I could never drive in either one of those places. Especially Dallas. Steve did have fun driving in Dallas. He said it was like driving in a video game. A bunch of people in cars traveling at high speeds with no particual rhyme or reason to what they are doing. And the roads there. Really. I don't know how you people do it. I just looked at Steve and said, "Now does my driving make sense to you? This is where I learned to drive!" Thank you Salt Lake City for you nice big wide clean orderly streets, your turn lanes, and I will never complain about your drivers again! I don't know what I was complaining about in the first place. My eyes have been opened.

Out of the whole 17 days we were gone, 5 entire days were spent driving. Some more pleasant driving memories?

Addy kept wanting to get to our hotel when we were driving. Only she called it a Show-n-Tell. Not a hotel. Are we almost at the show-n-tell?

Realizing I am raising full fledged Utahans when we stop for dinner the first night and my kids are complaining because they don't have fry sauce. And they complained at every place we went thereafter. I remember when I first moved to Utah, how weird I thought Utahan's were about their fry sauce. And now, here I am, 19 years later, raising weirdos.

We were sitting at the dang longest red light when we were in Nebraska. I'm serious. We sat there for at least 10 minutes. I said, "Why is this light so long?" And Zac said, "Because we are in Nebraska, the place where people have nothing better to do. Oh wait, that's Kansas."

On the way out we were singing Christmas songs, trying to keep the troops entertained. We were singing the 12 Days of Christmas. This is how Addy sang it: Two turtle butts, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Why can't a four year old go into a stinky bathroom without announcing to everyone how it smells? I was like, "Addy! Shhhh! The people who made it smell this way are probably still in here!" We walked into one really stinky bathroom and she said, "OH GROSS! IT STINKS IN HERE! MOM! A BOY WENT INTO THE GIRLS BATHROOM! THAT'S NOT COOL!" Apparently boys are the only ones who can be stinky in a bathroom.

Why is it that when mom decides to sleep in the car, that is the time everyone decides they need to talk to her? Seriously! I fall asleep and every two seconds it's mom this, and mom that. I finally give up on sleep and then all of the sudden, no one needs me anymore.

Steve and I read The Book Thief on our drive. Or more like I read The Book Thief to Steve. It was fabulous. An absolutely gorgeously written book. If you haven't read it, you should. We finished it Saturday night and started The Hunger Games. Not so beautifully written, but a book you can't put down never the less. We are almost done with it. All day yesterday while I was reading it, the kids were listening too. They never wanted me to stop reading. Yes kids, why don't you listen to mom read a book about a bunch of kids being forced to fight each other to the death. Really, it is a juvenile book, made for kids. And even though they are being forced to fight to the death, it's not as bad as it sounds. I can't wait to finish it. And then read the other two in the series.

OK, enough babble. Like I said, I have work to do. Happy back to the grindstone day everyone!

Did You Just Say What I Think You Said?

I was getting ready this morning and the TV in my room was on. It was tuned to the Today Show and I was just half paying attention to it when I heard the promo for their next segment come on. It was entitled "Slacker Mom vs. Alpha Mom". The whole segment was to try and find out which was better the "Alpha Mom" who is picture perfect and everything in her life follows suit or the "Slacker Mom" who is more laid back. Her kids hair isn't perfectly done, clothes might be a little wrinkled, store bought cupcakes as opposed to made from scratch. Apparently I fall into the latter category. But would I characterize myself as a "SLACKER"? Uh, no. Are all of the mom's out there who aren't "PERFECT", slackers? Uh, again, I must answer a with a huge NO!


This is why I don't watch the "news", if you categorize the Today show as news. I can't stand the media. Seriously. They just severely irritate me. All of 'em. Where do they get off calling the majority of mothers in the world slackers. Honestly. Being a mother is one of the hardest jobs on earth and I just really would have to take offense if I cared enough about the media to be offended by them. But I don't, so I will just end it right here.


So I will go forward today, with my head held high, to serve my children cold cereal for breakfast, dig through the pile of clean yet unfolded laundry for underwear for them to put on, and bake them cookies by scooping the pre-made dough out of the container I purchased at Sam's Wholesale Club. But before I do that, I leave you with this rather large quote from Oprah:


I'm in awe of good mothers—those heroines all around me who sacrifice daily out of love for their children. In our society, we give motherhood plenty of lip service. We pat moms on the head, bring them flowers on Mother's Day, and honor them before crowds. But at the end of the day, we don't extend them the same respect we would a professor, a dentist, an accountant or a judge. Women who choose full-time mothering are often put in a box by their friends and former colleagues—a container labeled "just a mom."


I believe the choice to become a mother is the choice to become one of the greatest spiritual teachers there is. To create an environment that's stimulating and nurturing, to pass on a sense of responsibility to another human being, to raise a child who understands that he or she is created from good and is capable of anything—I know for sure that few callings are more honorable. To play down mothering as small is to crack the very foundation on which greatness stands.


The world can only value mothering to the extent that women everywhere stand and declare that it must be so. In our hands, we hold the power to transform the perception of motherhood. Whether we decide to work full-time while raising children, stay home with our kids, or bear no children at all, we need to understand that any put-down of the decision to mother is a threat to women's choices everywhere. We should no longer allow a mother to be defined as "just a mom." It is on her back that great nations are built. We should no longer allow any woman's voice to be drowned out or disregarded. As we affirm other women, and as we teach our sons, husbands and friends to hold them in the highest regard, we honor both the mothers whose shoulders we've stood on and the daughters who will one day stand tall on ours.

BONUS Flashback Friday - Ghosts Of Thanksgivings Past

 Thanksgiving 1992

I had just graduated from High School a few months before and had just moved from Dallas Texas to Salt Lake City Utah (a move I'm sure my parents never thought would be permanent, but hey - I'm still here in Utah 20 years later!).  My dad and Farrah drove up to spend Thanksgiving in Utah with me.  On their way they got caught in a horrible snow storm and had to spend the night in a church somewhere in the middle of nowhere.  But alas, they finally made it!  We had fun together, just the three of us.  We made our own Thanksgiving feast and tried to take a picture of ourselves.  It didn't work out too well as you can see above.  That was way back when you had to buy actual film for your camera and then take your pictures to be developed and wait until you got them back to see that you took a picture of yourself with your head cut off.  We also went to see the lights at Temple Square:

Thanksgiving 1996

Steve and I had been married for about a year and a half and were living in Utah.  Farrah was going to BYU.  She had just had her wisdom teeth pulled and we literally picked her up from the dentist and drove to Idaho to spend Thanksgiving with my Great Grandma Erma Arthur and our great Aunts and Uncles and cousins.

 Thanksgiving 1998
We spent this Thanksgiving in St. Louis with Steve's family.  Zac was a year old.  In the second photo down it is funny to see how sparse our little table is.  When we get together now there are so may of us we are all crowded together.  While we were there we went to see my brother-in-law Ed play in a hockey game. 
 

Thanksgiving 2003

We spent Thanksgiving in Dallas that year.  Emily and Zac helped Papa deep fry the turkeys.  We had two sweet little babies, Aubrey and Tia, who had just been born that March.  A few years before my father, being the cunning man that he was, came up with a plan to insure that his family was always together on Thanksgiving.  He instituted a tradition of taking all the male members of the family to the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving day.  It worked up until the year he decided to up and move to Utah himself.

Thanksgiving 2004

Dallas Texas.  A dear friend of ours, George Brown, who several years before served as a missionary in our ward in Dallas, came to spend Thanksgiving with our family.  He wanted to repay my parents for the kindness they showed him as a missionary, so he bought the tickets and took all the guys to the Cowboys game that year.  We didn't know it at that time, but this was our last Thanksgiving in Dallas as my parents moved to Utah the following summer.

Thanksgiving 2005

My parents first Thanksgiving in their new house in Utah.  I didn't take any pictures of this event, I only have the pictures my sister took of our family.  As you can see in the bottom picture, we gained a child - my nephew Gabe.  Bart and Farrah and Gabe came from Dallas to spend Thanksgiving with us.

Thanksgiving 2008

Our first Thanksgiving since my dad passed away in January of that year.  We had just moved into our new house.  A few months before we had moved out of our old house and into my mother's basement while we finished up the house.  My brother Sam had just returned home from his mission in Mexico City a month before.  My mom's house was crowded and we were trying to hurry and finish our house so we could move out of my mom's house before Bart and Farrah and their boys came to stay with her for Thanksgiving.  We just barely made it and just moved in a few days before they arrived.  Click here to see the original post of that Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving 2009

Our first Thanksgiving to host in our new house.  It was a pretty quiet one.  Just our family and my mom and Lauren and Sam.  Click here for the original post.

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a pretty big group over to celebrate Thanksgiving with us that year.  We had our friends, who are also my mom's across the street neighbors, Curtis and Kami and their boys over.  They were smack dab in the middle of remodeling their kitchen.  Also my mom and Lauren's friends Dr. Jen and her girls.  Click here for that original post.

Thanksgiving 2011

We spent Thanksgiving in St. Louis last year.  We had a blast.  That Thanksgiving included hiking, art, history, animals, guns, arches, dancing, war games, Thanksgiving dinner at Jack-in-the-Box, Black Friday on the floor of the Troy Walmart pharmacy where I am pretty sure I contracted bronchitis, a flash mob, and tons and tons of family and fun.  Click on each day for those posts.  Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6.