Today has been a crazy day! First, I got a call just before 8am from Troy Mills, the guy in the neighborhood over whose mini van we looked at Monday night. We are likely going to buy it from him and we've had some back and forth. We chatted for a few minutes and hung up, then he called back 5 minutes later. He asked again what my husbands name was (Michael) and where he worked and asked, "North Austin Sports Medicine?" To which I said yes and was surprised that he remembered from our chat the other night. He then laughed and said that his wife (whom we did not meet the other night) would be his patient in about an hour. Wow! Pretty funny. Michael then texted me 30 minutes later and asked their last name b/c he saw her chart (Rachel) and thought it sounded familiar (moving to Singapore in 10 days). Their kids also go to our school, our kid likely know them, but not by name, and they haven't seen them yet.
Then I drove the kids an hour to Killeen, Texas (an hour) for appointments for Matthew and Alyssa. I took the 3 big kids there last week to get pano x-rays to see if/when they would need braces/expanders because a guy in our ward at church is an orthodontist and we have been doing a trade: orthodontics for portraits. I took their family portraits last November. Anyway, after the x-rays last week, he suggested Matthew and Alyssa get palette expanders because their jaws are mis aligned and it is better to do it while younger. He said he also suggested Matthew start phase 1 of braces. I left stunned and not quite ready. I took them back today thinking it was for the palette expander, to find out that Matthew's was actually that AND braces...TODAY!!! I was so unprepared and after they double checked twice with the lead hygenist, it was confirmed. I started to tear up....I didn't have a camera to take a before picture, I wasn't ready! Since last week, I asked Matthew what he thought about clear braces, selfish of me wanting to keep him younger, and he said it was fine with him. They are a bit more, but with our trade, its all good. So, it was to happen. With clear, it was a lot easier for me to wrap my head around.
I took Cali and Tyler to the local Wal Mart to kill time and came back and Alyssa was all done. Big metal stuff on the roof of her mouth and smiley. We walked back to see Matthew in the chair getting his work done. He came out pretty smiley, too. Tyler was jealous that he wasn't getting braces for what he claims are crooked teeth. It really didn't look so bad, and hard to tell that he even had them from a few feet away. Yay, I'm happy about the clear option.
After the hour drive home, I heard from Cali, "Mommy....Lyssa....night night." I turned back and saw Alyssa asleep. All that trauma to her system! (Besides that, she and matthew have had killer sore throats, matthew was negative for Strep yesterday). I got Wendy's food for them and the boys got ice cream, but becasuse she was asleep and I wanted her to stay asleep, I didn't get her some. I knew it would not be good when she woke up, but hoped the boys could hide it--and I suggested that. We got home, she woke up groggy, and had a major tantrum. She doesn't do it very often, but I think the pain combined with the groggy, it threw her for a loop. She let out a major scream and slammed the door at the garage and inside slammed a cupboard door closed. I was very patient b/c I knew of her predicament, and kindly asked her to go sit in time out she stomped (and maybe I giggled to myself) as she walked away to the "brown chair."
Matthew at that point expressed pain on his lip, so I went to help him wax the bracket and he yelped out that it hurt so bad, to which I realized it was just the pain of the brackets on, not them rubbing. I huggged him and told him it would feel better in a few days and in the meantime, we will take medicine to help it out. I feel so bad. He meanwhile is gargling saltwater and popping cough drops for his not strep throat.
Cali had naptime and I pulled out the musical Annie because Alyssa's Twinkling Stars singing group is performing, "you're never fully dressed without a smile" and they have never heard of it. It is a newer version of Annie (not the original) but I think it is more kid friendly anyway. At first, Matthew didn't want to watch it, but I stayed with them and convinced him to give it 15 mintues and he was hooked. We all have "electronic time" while Cali naps. Usually I am on the computer and they do a movie/wii/ds. It works out and I generally restrict electronics for us the rest of the day.
After Cali woke up, I whisked the kids into our nearly broken down Mazda MPV mini van to Calliber Collision. Michael got rear ended the other day as he was taking our mini van to the shop to try to get it to pass inspection (it is 2 months overdue and we have been in and out of shops to get that dumb check engine light off that is on for now reason. I got a ticket for the expired inspection on my drive to Corpus Christi last month). Anyway, as we got the car looked at at the collision place, a girl came up to me that worked there and said, "I"m a big fan of yours." Come to find out, she is a regular on the craft blogs and has seen my work and checks my blog and does some photography, too. We chatted for a bit and she said she felt she was talking to a celebrity...I thought that was pretty funny. She said she saw our name come across and thought, "Could that be the same KRISTEN DUKE?" We chatting about crafty and photography for a few minutes and she asked (as many outside of church do) how I do it with 4 kids. I just do it. I love it.
We headed home and Michael got home and we had waffles with blueberries and strawberries and homemade whipped cream for dinner and then watched Summer Wipeout on TV, the only family show we watch together. Whew--nice to blog a day in our crazy life!
Tomorrow morning is football Friday with the boys--I enjoy having a gang of kids over for that each week! I've asked my sis in law, Kim, to do some book keeping for me, because I am so behind at entering stuff into my excel spreadsheet. My bday is next week. We head to California in 2 weeks and we just decided to drive in our new van--yipee! Oh yeah, and I just got called to be the YW mia maid advisor, and I'm SO excited to be in YW again!!!
All is well. Life is good.
Weekly Meal Plan 9-20-26
1 day ago
