Bloody Gums

Why is it that going to the dentist fills me with more dread, not less, the older I get?

When I was a kid, I think I had at least 9 cavities in my baby teeth. Even though I eventually lost all those, my mouth is still full of lots of silver (and some white) fillings. What I'm trying to say is, in my youth, I was very familiar with Novocaine and a drill in the hands of my very gentle dentist, Dr. John. Even with all that familiarity, I don't recall any fear or pain....until I was about seventeen.

That's the age I was when I'm pretty sure I hit full immunity to Novocaine, and dental visits began to hurt, and thus, fill me with dread. At the age of eighteen I had my wisdom teeth removed, and thank goodness Dr. Adams was very liberal with his administration of the laughing gas. I only remember coming to once, as he was tugging to extract a giant tooth, and he saw my eyelids flutter and told the assistant to crank up the juice...and then I was out again.

I still fear cavities and fillings, but I haven't had to deal with that fear much as an adult. Did I start brushing more vigorously and effectively? Perhaps. But now they tell me that I'm brushing too well, and it's giving me some gum issues. Which brings me to the point of my title. I had a dental exam and cleaning today, and it was incredibly painful and bloody. Might I mention that this appointment was at 6:00 am, I had skipped breakfast, and my stomach complained about the fact that bloody saliva mixed with a few grains of tooth polish was the first thing it got to digest for the day.

Question: If my gum tenderness is, as they say, caused by aggressive brushing, then how could it solve anything to hack at my gum line every six months with a small ice pick? Doesn't it make sense that, because of the way they scrape at my poor teeth in the dentist's chair, I'm inclined to believe that I must not be brushing well enough, and go home and redouble my efforts?! Who's confused here, me or them?

I had to eat soft foods today. My teeth are very tender. And flossing tonight was terrifying.

Clark, is this normal? Is this the type of torture they teach you in dental school? Breanne, is there a compassionate dental hygienist out there? Especially at 6:00 am, for crying out loud!

Awkward

Guess what today's YW lesson was about...Ok, you might not guess, and then I'll have people leaving comments wanting to know the answer, so I'll just go ahead and tell you. I had to teach a group of Beehives about the Sacred Powers of Procreation. Yikes. That was probably the most nerve-wracking lesson I've ever had to prepare. I used to think (and actually, I still do) that teaching Gospel Doctrine would be seriously intimidating, because I don't feel like I know enough to teach those lessons. Well, this lesson wasn't difficult for that reason (I'm pretty sure I know more than all the Beehives about today's subject), but it was awkward for other reasons. a) they are Beehives, and they are silly about just about any topic you could think of...especially this one!
b) I felt like I needed their parents to sign consent forms first
c) I really hope that this was not the first talk on the subject for any of the fresh 12-year-olds!
d) I can just imagine the conversation those families had on the drive home from church today.
Mom: So, honey, how was YW today? What did you guys talk about?
Beehive: Sex.
Mom: WHAT?!?!

So, I've been building up my anxiety over the last couple days, for the above reasons. And then, to make it even worse, I ended up with only FIVE MINUTES, literally, to teach the lesson. That's exactly enough time for me to get their attention, delve into the topic, solicit a bunch of red faces and eye rolls and a couple of giggles, and then say "Amen".

Good thing we have Stake Conference next week. Maybe with two weeks before I have to teach them again, we will all have gotten over today's awkwardness.

I Never Seen

This is the way Hannah adds great emphasis to a compliment: She adds those three words, "...I never seen," at the end. For example, she might say, "This is the best dinner I never seen!", or (my personal favorite), "Mom, I love you. You are the best mom I never seen." That's how she woke me up this morning.
It's good to know she still thinks I'm the best mom, even after her struggle on the potty yesterday. She made poops in the potty (yay!), but only after overcoming an hour-long struggle against her fears and my encouragement. Anyway, it's progress, and hopefully this week she'll get the hang of it all.
So, how are things going for all of you? :)

And They're Off....

Three of the four girls are now in school. Hannah is very jealous of her sisters! So am I, to tell you the truth. Who didn't love elementary school? This is the first and only year that they will all be at the same school. Aren't they absolutely adorable?! (Not to mention, brilliant!)

Happy Birthday to Emily!

We celebrated Monday morning with a special breakfast made by Daddy (it's so nice when these occasions fall on holidays!), and opening some gifts.

Then we went to the zoo.

The celebrating continued into the next 24 hours. On the last day of summer vacation, Emily had a birthday party. It was a dog theme. The guests got to paint ceramic puppies, play Pin the Tail on the Dog, eat hot dogs and cupcakes for lunch, and make dog pins to wear.

The two hours flew by. In fact, Emily was disppointed that there wasn't enough time to play Dog Bingo. But it was a fun party and she received lots of nice gifts that she's trying to learn to share willingly with her sisters. I learned that 8- and 9-year-olds still enjoy running around the house and screaming, if the party parent doesn't maintain a pretty tight structure to the party.

Lifestyles of the Enriched and Famous

Jennifer and I went with some others from the ward to a Ladies Night Out/Enrichment Activity at the Macaroni Grill last night, and while we were being enriched, we ran into someone sort-of famous. Do you recognize him? :)

Confessions of a Sun Worshipper

I adore the sun. I love the sun. I do not worship the sun by frying my skin to an unnatural shade of brown, but I do worship the sun by soaking it in and becoming very, very happy when it shines on me. I miss the sun almost as much as I miss my friends and family in Utah. It is one of the top 3 reasons I MUST return to Utah every so often. It just so happens that most of my family, many friends, and that glorious glowing ball of heat all coexist in that happy place.

So, I just got back from 2 weeks of enjoying those things. And I have to say it was hard to come back home. I did miss Doug while he was here alone, working while we girls played; and I did wonder from time to time if I was missing out on anything here at home during those two weeks of vacation. But I'm pretty sure that Doug was the only thing I was missing here. (Well, ok, I do enjoy the pretty green landscape of this place. But it comes at a pretty steep price, in my opinion.)

After living here for three-and-a-half years now, I keep waiting for that feeling of being so attached to my home that I wouldn't want to leave it. It happened in Utah. I never would have thought that I would continue to live in Utah (Provo, nonetheless) after graduating from BYU. And I never would have predicted that we would buy a house and start raising our family in that place. But after a few years, I started to really like it there, and when it came time for us to leave Provo and enter "the real world", I cried. I was sad to leave.

I have a desire to be attached to this place, because a)Doug loves his job here, b) my kids know this as their home and are happy here, for the most part, and c) it has all the features of a place we imagine we would want for our permanent home, and we do want to find a place to establish some roots. I'd like to think I could be perfectly content for those reasons alone. But without my friend, The Sun, just that one little factor....I'm having a hard time.

This summer has been a disappointing one. Mother Nature has really let me down. Does that mean it is going to be an unusually pleasant winter? I still have a smidgeon of hope....

1+1 x 12 = 6

Several years ago I was waiting in line at Sam's Club, and behind me was an adorable elderly couple. He started to talk to me about my three little girls, who were shopping with me that day. He said, "So your mathematical equation is 1+1 x 7 = 5." I had to think about it for a minute before I understood what he was saying. It helped when he went on with, "Our equation is 1+1 x 54 = 62." (I wish I could remember the real numbers he used, but those are pretty close, I think.)

Anyhow, Doug and I are 1+1 x 12 now. We celebrated our anniversary in Utah again. It was really nice to get to go back to the Bountiful Temple where we were married 12 years ago that day, and get all sentimental with my sweetie. :) We also went to lunch, and this year, we exchanged gifts! Doug gave me a new video recorder (our first one finally died after almost 11 faithful years of service to us), and I gave him a new wedding ring, since he can't wear his old one anymore--it's too big, and it flies off his finger. (It's becoming a danger to those around him, whenever he gestures with his hands.) This is his third wedding ring, by the way. His original ring suffered some damage one night when he was working at the temple as a security guard. That's a story for another time. And now, his fingers have shrunk down to a smaller size, and he's been going around without any ring at all, which only invites unwanted flirting and subsequent disappointment to every single woman he comes across. So I figured it was a good time to tag him again.

I feel so lucky to have picked someone to marry (at the very young and naive age of 19) who was such a gem then, and has only become more refined and perfected in the 12 years since.

Happy Anniversary to us!

What to Love About Summertime in Seattle...The Countdown

6. Utility payments do not increase for the cost of running air conditioning--we don't have it or need it.

5. At the Woodland Park Zoo, the animals don't hide in caves or shadows to get away from the sun, so there's a good chance they'll be active, trying to keep their body temperatures up. The penguins and polar bears are especially happy.

4. The show always goes on. Take, for example, Doug's company barbecue and family fun day. It was held on July 20th this year, and we didn't let the pouring rain hold us back from anything. We added a couple extra layers of clothing, went to the park, and jumped on inflatables, joined in an egg toss, and ate our summery bbq chicken and potato salad under soggy, dripping tarps. Good times!

3. There's no need to buy a season pass to the local pool or water park (the nearest one of those is about an hour away, anyhow). This year we've spent a grand total of $7.50 for our family to enjoy a cool-off in the pool. And cool is the key word, there.

2. When the sun comes out and the skies are blue, and the temperatures climb towards 80, this truly is a beautiful place to be, and we display smug grins, thinking about the rest of the country dripping in sweat.

1. Best of all, living here in the summer makes us all the more excited to go to that desert we call Utah for a little vacation. Rather than dreading the 100-degree heat, we look forward to a two-week thaw, and soaking in our annual dosage of Vitamin D through those beautiful rays of hot sun!

We're on our way!!

Fun in the Sun

It's August, and the sun shows up in Washington. After spending most of the day working up a sweat inside the house, cleaning rooms and doing other such boring summer work...we decide to seize the sunny day and go swimming!

The girls have put on their swim suits a handful of times already this summer, but only for running through the sprinkler in our yard. Today we packed up and went to the public pool, because it felt like a true summer day. (See how their eyes were squinting in the sun?) Yep, it was a hot one. I checked the outside temperature as I was driving to the pool, and it was almost 80 degrees out there. Woah! Around here, that's called a heat wave.

The 75-minute swim session was about 20 minutes too long for Hannah and myself. But Lauren, Emily, and Katelyn enjoyed every minute of being in the water, whether it felt "refreshing" or not!

I tried to keep myself warm by clinging to other warm bodies in the water!

I was surprised by how well Kate & Emmy can swim, even with infrequent practice.

They spent most of their swim timing utilizing their handy dandy goggles to search for loose change on the bottom of the pool. (Grand total was 50 cents.)

Hannah just welcomes any opportunity to show off one of her various pairs of pink sunglasses.