Teeth

Tori still has not lost that wiggly tooth. But, Tuesday as we were driving to school, Tori said, "Mom, my tooth is coming out!" I was all stressed out thinking, "Oh my gosh, I need to pull over...There's going to be blood" and "What if she swallows it..." I decided to chill out and wait to see what happened. Well, thankfully we made it to school without any incidents of blood or choking and I immediately looked in her mouth....And I was shocked. Here's what I saw, and my reaction was something like, "My kid's a freak!" I guess the new tooth felt weird, and that's why she was falsely reporting the loss...

I proceeded to seek the opinions of several of my co-workers, and none had ever seen this. So, I looked on the net. Evidently, it's not so uncommon, and several kids get rows of "shark teeth". :) I did make an appointment though with her dentist tomorrow to make sure nothing needs to be done. If you look closely, you can also see one of the three molars that are coming in, too. Wow! Those teeth all just came out of nowhere!

Adrion also has five teeth now. I didn't want to leave him out since he's got lots of tooth things going on, too, so here's me trying to get the shot and then getting a semi-successful shot of half of a mad baby mouth...

Yeah, and there's a nice shot of a boogey, too. :)

Charlotte's Web

So I started a drama club for my middle schoolers this year...for the first semester of school, we met once a week with a goal of performing before Christmas. Well, we soon found that once a week was not enough, we should have started with a shorter play, and we'd have to postpone.

We are now scheduled to perform in about 3 weeks. I am still doubtful that we'll be totally ready, but we're performing no matter what this time! This experience has definitely been a learning one. I hope the Music and Art teachers will be involved next year, too...(I am so thankful for Christie and all of her help this year though! I should also mention that Mr. Core was going to help, too, and I'm very sad that he's gone. He is very missed...He had such an active ministry with so many children...)

Anyway, I digress! So Charlotte's Web is back on! Get ready, because stars are about to be born!

Here comes Cupid!

Tori's Valentine box: Can you guess? A pony!

Adrion Michael

2 weeks old...






















1 year old! Happy Birthday, my sweet baby boy!

Why Am I Awake??

My usual bedtime never tends to go past 9ish, but here I am--awake! Okay...so it's only 9:42, but still, I should be crashed out by now. But here I am blogging without really a direction...

I thought I'd be blogging this weekend about Tori's first lost tooth--It's definitely wiggly, but not quite out yet. Maybe at school tomorrow...I always got money from the tooth fairy, but Tori is convinced that the tooth fairy will leave her a surprise. I asked G what he thought, and he said in his very practical way that it'd just depend on what's available. And yes, that makes sense because teeth are unpredictable and a midnight run to Walmart is not exactly ideal for us out here in the boonies. But I think it would be fun for Tori to get a fun "surprise" for her first lost tooth. I'll have to send G to get something special tomorrow so we'll be ready...Is it weird to keep the teeth? Is that kind of like keeping the belly button cord stump? I'm gonna go for weird and keep them...

Another random thing on my mind tonight is birthday parties. Adrion turns 1 on the 9th, and we're having a small family party at Steffey's Pizza in Lavaca. I'm looking forward to seeing him dig in to that first piece of cake! Then Tori's birthday is in April. She'll be 7 this year, and until now I've always done the family party for her, too. But this year I think I'm going for a kid party. I'm also considering having a little sleepover for her afterward. I'll have to send the boys to Spiro or something that night...

And a final thought--Thursday we're taking our 5th graders to Little Rock to tour the capitol building, watch legislation in action, and play at the Museum of Discovery. It will be a long day, but we've got a great group of kids this year, so I'm looking forward to it! Well, I suppose I'll go do some reading now until this second wind goes away. Night night!

Walking, Potter, 10 Things

I have three topics on my mind, and they don't go together at all, but I'm going to squeeze them into one blog--

1. Adrion is walking. He started about a week ago. Though he still lacks confidence to take off, he is getting better and better, and he loves walking back and forth between Garon and me. Tori likes to play, too, and she loves it when Adrion chooses HER! :)

2. I just finished the Harry Potter series, and I must say it is amazing. I'm still trying to digest all of the minute details dropped throughout the 7 books that created its very complicated, connected, and complete ending. It's mystery, kju07nyhio (that was Adrion), fantasy, action, drama, and comedy all laced together through intricate relationships between characters. There is no "fluff". Every plot line, detail, character, object, and setting is a piece of the puzzle that is revealed at the end...Really--it's that good!

3. 10 "Real" Things: On Casey's blog, she took the 10-Real-Things-Challenge, and I am inspired to try it, too. It's about sharing not-commonly-known facts about yourself...so here's me:

1-I married the first boy I kissed. No one was good enough until I met him. :)
2-I can eat a box of Big Cheez-its with a can of squeeze cheese in one sitting.
3-I want to live in the mountains with a view.
4-I am a product of a family with eccentric spiritual history/beliefs, so even though I'm a born-again Christian, I disagree with some "Christian" perspectives.
5-It's hard for me to make and keep friends. I tend to push people away and prefer solitude even though I try not to be that way.
6-I struggle with depression. It's genetic--there's no way around that. I'm fine though with some drugs in my system (legal ones), and I hope my kids never feel that darkness.
7-I want to speak Spanish fluently and live in Latin or South America for a period of time.
8-I do not like cell phones. I don't want to always be available and connected. That attitude is probably why my phone is lost right now.
9-I collect elephants because I've had a fascination with Africa for as long as I can remember. My elephants are a symbol of that. When the kids are old enough, I want to go on a safari to experience that wonder.
10-I love being a mommy. My children (okay, even more so my husband) keep/keeps me grounded and out of the clouds.

Okay, your turn! If you read this, it's your turn to take the challenge! If you don't blog, do it in email and don't forget to send one to me! :)

Hobbies

Tori's favorite thing in the whole wide world--PONIES! "Twinkle Twirl" is dancing here for her audience...


















And here's a bigger view with "Butterscotch" watching. The plastic drawers in the corner are only for ponies, and they are FULL! I don't know what we'll do when she grows out of her ponies! I think we'll have to keep them forever!
























And finally, here's Garon with Fred, Travis, and Derek playing in the forest with their air-assault rifles. Garon's other major hobbies include playing WoW (World of Warcraft) online, and he's just taken back up with guitar after several years not playing. I love that!