Room full of Roses!

Maxine wanted a bedroom full of roses. As she puts it: "I have in my mind pictures of roses and poems about roses on the wall". Well, we're getting there. We've finished painting her room, and it turned out good. She loves it!

Easton talks in his sleep . . . .

How do I know this? Because our room is adjacent to him, our doors are right next to each other. Not across the hall or around the corner, but right there!! And like most mothers, even in the deepest of sleep, just the slightest noise from a child and a mom jolts up in bed to figure out who needs what. So, not only is Easton a noisy sleeper, but he talks in his sleep. Can't understand any of it, but it's pretty funny. The not so funny part is that he walks in his sleep a little too: right into my room and in my bed, right between mom and dad. And he is a bed hog!! He's been sick for a few days, has a nasty cough and cold, so I think that's why he's wandering into our bed. Last night I took him back to his bed at least 3 times, that I'm aware of anyways, and he kept coming back!!

Anybody wanna bed buddy??

An addition to the family. . . . Scout

At least his name for now is Scout. Now that we're in our own home again, Bryan agreed to let the kids get new cats. So, this weekend we went looking for kitty's. Riley is holding out for another all black cat, like Jeter. Couldn't find one and he was devastated. Maxine wanted a tabby orange kitten. We were so fortunate and found just such a kitten at the Pocatello Animal Shelter. So we adopted and brought home a new orange Tabby kitten, he's only about 2 months old. The kids are loving him to death, but he is such a good natured, even tempered kitty and so tolerant, for now. He's quiet and likes to be around us, doesn't run away much. Loves to snuggle up with the kids, especially Riley, and Bryan. Go figure. He's a sweet little guy. Hope he stays that way. Hasn't had any accidents, isn't eating much though. Maxine is still kicking around names, but Scout seems to be sticking. Here's some pictures:

When momma ain't happy. . . .

So, as I've mentioned before, which is actually below, so maybe you haven't read it yet, this month has brought an unexpected challenge, ok, really, it's just been a nightmare!! It's sort of a long story, and I'm not sure I dare post pictures, cause it really is horrid. So, here goes. . .

To set the stage, it's the first week of March, we've just closed on our new house and are anxious to start moving stuff over to the new house. The plan is to move slowly and methodically, alleviating the stress that inevitable accompanies moving. It's midterms at school, so both Bryan and I have classes that we are working on stuff for midterms, and Bryan is working on midterms for his classes he's teaching. He's also dealing with a major crisis at work and is called out of town to Minnesota to deal with what continues to be a tricky situation. I am have 3 midterm tests, an assignment to turn in, and a speech to give.

I develop a toothache the first couple days in March. Now, we're talking major toothache, keeping me up at night for nights on end toothache. It's so awful and it refers up my jaw to my ear. Now, I've had a similar toothache about 8 years ago. I went to the dentist 8 years ago and he said, nothing wrong with that tooth that I can tell, I think it's TMJ, but I don't treat TMJ. Went to a Dr. explained that the pain had referred and was in my TMJ joint, right by my ear. She agreed, sounds like TMJ, but I don't treat TMJ. I don't remember what happened, but it resolved itself. So, when the same ache starts, the same way, shoots up my jaw to my ear and TMJ joint, I don't think I need to see a dentist to have them tell me there's nothing wrong with the tooth.

Friday, March 7, I'm through with a lot of my midterm stuff, I've pushed through the pain, haven't slept much at all. I have a speech to give this morning, then I can focus on being sick. Bryan is out of town til Sunday afternoon. I'm sitting in my speech class, I'm done with mine (got an A, I might add) and I feel a bump forming on the outside of my jaw, just outside of the tooth in question. It's getting bigger and more painful by the minute. By the time class is over, I know I have to go to a dentist, and there's a bump the size of a walnut on my jaw. Keep in mind, it's a Friday afternoon, 2pm. Fortunately, I'm able to see a dentist after much juggling of childcare. I think I've stumped him, to be honest. He says, it's definitely a problem with this tooth, basically, the root canal done 15 years earlier, tactfully put, maybe wasn't done as well as it could have been. It's clearly infected, and the bone is damaged. Basically, worst case scenario: this is it. He says you can either re-do the root canal, probably won't work, or you'll just have to lose the tooth. On Monday, I'll set up a consultation with an oral surgeon. Here's some antibiotics and pain pills for the weekend, good luck.

I fill the scripts, get home and am so thankful for narcotics. Riley is so sweet, he can tell how bad I am feeling and he sternly sends me to bed and says he'll take care of the kids (remember Bryan is still gone). He does a great job keeping the kids occupied while I lay down and doze off a little. Kelly brings pizza over for the kids for dinner, (thanks a million Kelly!). I get the kids to bed and am ready to go to bed myself, it's around 10. The kids are all sleeping, but I can't sleep at all. The pain is getting worse and I've watched this bump on my jaw swell by the hour. By midnight it's the size of a baseball, no kidding. I'm seriously troubled, this just isn't right, but what do I do? I finally call the dentist on the "on call" number at 12:30, he doesn't answer. I leave a message that I'm worried and I wonder if I need to go to the ER. (He calls me the next morning, so apologetic, he had left his phone on and with him, wondering if I'd call, but didn't hear it. Said yes, going to the ER was the right thing to do. He felt terrible he missed my midnight phone call though.) I call Kelly, she doesn't answer. I poke around the neighbor's house, their lights are on, but I don't see them anywhere. Thought about calling my aunt and uncle and I know they'd come in a hearbeat, but knew they were a half hour away and I knew I couldn't wait. So, I wake the older kids and tell them I'm going to the hospital, give them the phone, and tell them to call if they need anything. Next morning, they don't remember any of this and slept through the whole thing. I wake up Easton and take him with me. Worked out OK, he had a great time with the nurses since it was a slow night and we were just about the only ones there. Anyways, the Dr sees me, says yes, that's a wicked infection, you need to see an oral surgeon to have the tooth removed. Novel. In the meantime, he gives me pain killers (thankfully, the first real relief in a week) and gives me IV antibiotics. Says I have to come back every 8-10 hours for more IV antibiotics. I do this all weekend until Monday night. The swelling and infection improves a little, and the pain is managed somewhat too.

Monday I meet with the oral surgeon, he says, it has to come out tomorrow and the best thing to do is eventually put in an implant, but the bone is damaged, so you may need a bone graft. Again, worst case scenario, and doesn't sound cheap either, but what choice do I have? Tuesday morning, they put me out and yank the sucker, drain a bunch of the infection, although it's another 2 weeks before I look mostly normal. I enjoy the conveniences of modern medicine and narcotics as I heal.

I must say, this has been just about the most horrific ordeal I've been through. I had no idea that a tooth could case so much trouble, and be so incredibly painful.

Now, nearly a month later, my face looks normal, I'm missing a tooth, it's a molar in the back of my mouth. It's healing quite well, he says. He says it will fill in with bone and doesn't think I'll need a graft afterall. Because my mouth has been through so much trauma, I have enormous canker sores in the back of my mouth and throat that hurt so bad. The surgeon won't really claim to know what to do with those, so I finally go see a Dr. who puts me on yet more meds, but at least they're clearing up. So, the worst of the ordeal is almost over. Except the implant, which involves screwing a titanium screw into my jaw in a few months. Oh, and the bills for all this. Turns out dental insurance really sucks and doesn't cover much of this at all.

Donations can be sent to our home.

A new home. . .

We've been here in Pocatello since September 07 and have been renting a house near the University. We didn't find a house to buy right away, and decided we'd rent and we'd take our time finding just the right house. After months of fruitless searching, I decided the house I was looking for couldn't be found, or at least was out of my price range. So we changed our expectations a bit, and after months of searching found a house and put in an offer. Fast forward to February 28 and we're closing on our new house, yahoo! Our new house is about 3 miles from our rental. It's a wonderful house and feels very much like "home". The day we picked up the keys and come over as "homeowners", Maxine got us all together and said "Our house is a HOME now"!!! How correct she was. It's a nice home, plenty of room, feels good and is in a great neighborhood. The kids are getting used to the new house, and the best part is, that Maxine and Riley are sleeping together in the basement, by themselves. That's been Riley's biggest complaint about the rental and his biggest objection to any house. He likes to sleep with everyone else close by, but he's doing good in the basement. We've been to church once, and it seems like a good ward. People were friendly and wanted to know who we were. There are kids in the neighborhood, we still need make friends of them, but there is potential. Riley has been to scouts once and the boys were very accepting of him. I think we'll do fine here. Here's two pictures of the new house, that's really all I have so far, but you get the idea at least.



We moved into our new house the weekend of March 15, we feel like we've unpacked a good number of boxes and it's starting to feel comfortable. Consider this your invitation to come and visit us, we'd love to have you!!

A bit behind. . . .

So, I've been a bit behind on posting anything, sorry. Not sure if anyone checks this to even notice it's been a while. But, I suppose I'll update. Been a crazy month, expected good things, school stuff, and unexpected trouble and challenges. I'll see what I can do to get it all on here.

First of all, I must say how much fun I'm having reading other blogs. I have a few that I've bookmarked of friends from the past and far away, and family and friends close by. The fun thing is finding links on their pages to other friends, from the past and far away. It's a fun way to catch up on friends, even though they probably have no idea I've gotten a hold of their blog pages. Funny, sort of.

Well, let's see if I can catch up. . . . . I guess it will be posted backwards, since I'll write this first, then post what's been going on, but you get the idea.

Maxine dances at halftime of the ISU girl's basketball game!

ok, here's maxine's moment in the spotlight. she did a dance clinic on saturday with the ISU bengal dancers and they got to perform at halftime that night at the ISU girl's basketball game. there were about 75 girls initially, i don't think all of them made it back that night to perform. but she had a really good time and she did great!! these are pictures that I took. bryan stayed home with Easton, so Riley filmed her dancing, and while I appreciate his efforts, if i put that up it will probably make you seasick to watch it. so you get a slideshow! enjoy!!