37

So I turned 37 last Tuesday. As a person gets older, I find that birthdays mean something different. I'm not one of those people who bemoans their age. I feel like I've earned these 37 years. But, as I told my kids, all I wanted was for them to get along all day and not to have to cook dinner. And for the most part my birthday wish came true. No major fights and I didn't have to be referee! Eva made me a cute heart card and Darby "wrote" me a birthday letter (really a bunch of lines but she translated it for me - so cute). Brendan offered to help with housework today. That touched me the most since sometimes he has trouble putting himself in other people's shoes, but he realized that I would like it and offered.

That night we met Jason at a restaurant for dinner. It was yummy and the kids were well behaved. I took Brendan to scouts later that night, mostly so I could hang out and talk with other moms. That, too, was nice. As we went to bed I realized that I didn't open my present so, the next day, I opened my Kitchenaid ice cream attachment. I told Jason that it is the gift that keeps on giving.

 So far I've made Nutella ice cream (the recipe needs some tweaking), mint chip (which was my favorite so far) and today I made s'mores ice cream. The kids were ecstatic. Okay, maybe Jason was too.

All gone! This could be dangerous.  ;)

Happy birthday to me!

Hammocks and stuff

Jason here again.

I ordered some hammocks this past week. They were on sale for 25 bucks so I bought two. I have had my eye on hammocks since I went backpacking with Aaron Walton a few years ago. The price was right, so I pulled the trigger and snatched them up.

We hung them up in the backyard and the kids and I had a blast hanging around in them (no pun intended).

Eva and Brendan got me to commit to letting them sleep in them that night (sorry Christine!). They attempted it and they lasted about 30 minutes at night before they decided that air conditioning and comfortable bedding was better than the novelty of hanging suspended between a couple trees.

Yesterday we also went out to our wooded wonderland to investigate a potential fishing spot.

First couple casts and I caught this monster bluegill.

I had a couple other bites as I tried to get something for the kiddos to reel in, but nothing else. Most of the time was spent trying to get the little guys from jumping in the water. I can't say I blame them, it was pretty hot. We spent about 20 or 30 minutes before we headed back home for family movie night.

Choices

Jason here. 

The other day Eva and I went on a daddy/daughter date. Most of the time we go to the "Fun Center" and play games before we go get frozen yogurt. This time though she wanted to go the mall and get something from the Disney Store. The item she just had to have was a stuffed Pocahantas doll. We got there and they did not have it. Eva was disappointed, but she was a good sport about it. I tried to tempt her with alternatives. She reluctantly agreed to something or other and we went to ring it up. I explained to the kind clerk the situation and the clerk mentioned that she can order it and have it delivered in five days. 

It was an interesting situation:  Would she get the thing in hand now she sort of likes or wait a while for the thing she really wants? To her credit she chose the latter. A week later the doll came and she loves it. 

Eva, years down the road I hope we can point to this story as an example of the importance of letting go of some things that seem okay and waiting patiently for better things. Well done, Sweetie!

Case Presentations

Jason here.

During residency, Friday is a busy day as it's our academic day. By mandate our time has to be split 60/40 between treatment time and didactic (book work). So we do research, literature reviews, and then case presentations of some interesting cases that we have done and discuss them in light of current best practices and thinking.

Here is an example of a case:

This is soldier who came in and could not sleep because he was in so much pain.  That tooth with the white stuff in it is the obvious culprit because the white stuff is right on top of the nerve space (dark area in the middle of the tooth).

 But no! Its not that tooth... its the one right behind it that is hurting and its never had anything done to it. Interesting.

 

These are small metal files that trace the path of the nerve canal and help clean things up. We mix up using these small files with sequentially larger files and bleach...yep, bleach.  

This is biocompatable-ish rubber that we finish cases with. It maintains the space we cleaned so that bacteria do not invade and infect teeth.

 Done. This tooth is under construction and will get a nice crown to keep it from breaking.

Anyways. So this is some of what I do at work. Its fascinating work and hard to do well consistently. Its an intersection of biological science, pysychology (patients in lots of pain are interesting to deal with), and engineering.

Sunny Day

Last Sunday we went with some friends to a nearby field of sunflowers. It is kind of random but there is a field of sunflowers across from the kids' school.  It's not there every year so it must be a part of crop rotation or something. But it is beautiful and these friends wanted pictures taken there. Joanna and Andre LeDoux have been our friends since we got here and its nice to get together regardless of where we are.

 Anyway, I took family pictures for them while our kids wandered around, checking out the flowers. Darby especially liked them. However, there were a ton of bees so we gave the kids instructions to steer clear of them.

After the LeDoux's were done, they took some shots of our family. None turned out very well due to my kids' inability to look at the camera and make a normal face. One example is Brendan. Can you see him? He had a canker sore and couldn't seem to get over it enough to smile. He has "canker face" in every shot. Sigh.

Then they let my kids walk their dog. The girls were in heaven!!! They'd have a dog right now if I'd give the okay. Paigey loved the dog the most though. At one point, the dog got off the leash and we had to go scampering after it.

Not long after, we got ready to head back to the car. We did a quick head count and Jason asked me where Paige was. I thought she was with the dog but I could see that she was not. And so we began a search for her amongst the massive field of bee ridden sunflowers. Jason kept calling and calling for her. About ten minutes passed. I tried not to panic, knowing it wouldn't help. Eventually he heard a small voice responding. She was almost to the other end of the field. When he got to her, she asked where the doggie was. Our best guess is that when she got off the leash Paigey went after her down a row and just kept going, getting lost in the flowers that were easily taller than she was. Double sigh.

After a big hug and a scolding, we headed back to the car. We let Paige play with the doggie one last time and came home.  It was an adventurous little outing. The funny thing is that Brendan had a dentist appointment the next day and guess who came in to examine him? Joanna. She made a funny joke about the fact that Paige was strapped in the stroller at the office so she couldn't get away. Isn't that the truth!

Exploring

Jason here.
Have I mentioned that I like the neighborhood we live in? I really do. The house is nice. Neighbors are nice. Its close enough to work, church, shopping, schools, etc to make life quite comfortable.

And we have forest trail that is right around the corner. I like to take the kids "exploring" back there, though we know those trails like the back of our hands.

There is mud, sands, frogs, fish in the stream, turtles, tadpoles, ticks (not too crazy about those, but they come with the territory).




The girls call these pipelines "picture spots" and mount them and give their best cheezers.


The future... Brendan rides his bike back here. When the girls get old enough, we will all ride together. The last time I took the bike back here with the trailer, I exploded the rear derailer and have yet to get it fixed.


Tadpole about to become a frog.


Berries! Too sour to eat yet. When we went back they were all gone.



Brendan likes to stomp on anthills. He's an ant bully. So to make their day after we caved in their little hole, we left some snacks for them. It was actually pretty interesting to watch the ants negotiate these crackers.


I posted a little while ago about how half of this little wooded haven is being developed and I imagine that in a few years it will probably go away completely. That will be sad because of all the sweet memories with the kiddos in our "100 Acre Wood."

Library Programs

Before school got out I made sure to grab a program schedule from our local library. There are always fun things to do there but I usually find out too late. Well now I could plan out the summer with interesting classes, story times, lessons and camps, the library being a place that would give us some of those.

I signed the two oldest up for a science class two weeks ago. They got to do some experiments, learn about matter and understand the scientific method better. Brendan's favorite part was the cola and Mentos experiment. I didn't know that diet soda would fizz more.

Today was storytime with Clifford. Brendan sat it out but the girls loved it. Paige's face when Clifford made an entrance was priceless. 

The kids all made dog ears and noses and we took pictures in his doghouse. Paige wanted to hug Clifford when it was our turn for pictures. 

There is also storytime every Wednesday. Brendan got his own library card (part of a scout elective) and so he can go and look at books and check them out while the little ones are at storytime/craft time.

I love the library and am happy that my kids do too. 

Swim Lessons

Its time for this year's session of swim lessons at the YMCA. This will be year three for us I think. And this summer's classes have been smaller and the instructors better than in years past. The pre-K instructor was a guy in his late teens. At first I wasn't sure how he would do with three little girls but he was fabulous. They all loved him, listened to him and learned (at least Darby did). Mr. Andrew made it fun for the little ones.

Darby swims with great "scoops", can float on her back and goes underwater without plugging her nose. Here's Darbs with Mr. Andrew.

As for Brendan and Eva, who were in the level 1 class, they had two instructors (one for each week). Miss Samantha was there for week one. I liked how she got right to swimming and offered specific, constructive criticism and praise. Miss Caroline was their instructor for the second week. She was great too. She taught them more swimming strokes and worked on technique.

Today was the last day and Brendan swam across the deep end. He still needs to work on endurance and breathing technique but he is GREATLY improved from last year when he couldn't swim a stroke and refused to jump in the deep end. He's most excited that he now opens his eyes underwater. Eva improved too though she still needs more lessons to make that deep end swim. Her kicks are good but her coordination and endurance are not quite there yet. But that's okay; she's only 6. 

Here are my three little fishes with their certificates.

Happy Independence Day

Yesterday was the 4th of July. I'll admit that my heart still longs for the small town celebration of my childhood, with a frog jumping contest, a town band and choir, sack races and egg tosses. But I am glad that the town we live in here has some of that. We attended the Hope Mills parade that morning. There are a few things you can count on in this parade: lots of fire trucks, the Nascar party bus and tractors with Confederate flags (the latter being slightly ridiculous).

We in front of the town hall, in the shade of a tree so the kids were too far away to get any of the candy that was thrown before other kids scooped it up. That made Eva especially sad. Paige enjoyed waving at the floats, especially the teen princesses of various local festivals.

This year there were also some Disney Princesses and the Avengers, which was extra exciting to the kids.

We were unsure what we were going to do in the afternoon. We had a family talk about the birth of our nation and what this holiday really stands for. Jason had bought a few fireworks and then, at dusk, he and the oldest three lit them in the driveway. The poppers were a hit with all the kids (and, I'll admit, with me).

Then came the sparklers!

 

Darby was not too sure about those, however. She warmed up to them as it got darker and she could see the trail of light they left as she moved her sparkler.

 Brendan proved himself to be a true boy as he jumped up and down with excitement at the larger firecrackers, and was less excited about the short lived-sparklers.

 Not long after, our neighbors graced us with a fireworks display that could have rivaled any small county's spectacle. From our front porch, we could see four different firework displays, one in roughly each direction. I love our neighborhood!

Happy Fourth of July!!!