Happy Thanksgiving

I am a little sad tonight as I did not have the opportunity to spend today with my extended family. Gary and I decided that because we will be driving to Fort Wayne in a couple of weeks for an early Christmas, we would not drive home today. If it were my choice, we would have gone anyway. But oh well. So we spend the day home. Actually I took Joshua to see Madagascar 2 while Zachary napped and Gary watched football. I came home and we ate a pretty good (while not as good as my mom's) turkey breast.

I am so thankful for my husband and my boys. Joshua and Zachary make me laugh on a daily basis and I wonder how I ever got so blessed. I have a supportive family who can't wait to share their clothes with a skinnier me. I have friends who love me thin or fat. I have a job that I feel very rewarded in. I live in a country where I am free to write whatever I want on a blog.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and thanks for reading.

Had a meltdown on the dentist office yesterday

So I took Joshua to the dentist on Monday for his 6 month check up. I have never been super thrilled with this dentist. It is a pediatric dentist. They have a room with 4 chairs for the kids and a bench off to the side of the room where the parents sit. It's like pulling teeth (no punn intended) to get to even talk to the dentist at the end of the appointment. He frequently checks the child's teeth and then moves on to the next person. Monday was no different.

Joshua's teeth are coming in all crazy because his jaw is so small. This creates a challenge with brushing, not to mention that he's 8 and doesn't have time to brush well! This dentist office grades the child on brushing (A-F). I personally think this is demeaning to the child and that there are better ways to go about it. So Joshua has his cleaning and I am making a point to watch what the hygeniest does/says. I quickly notice that she isn't talking to him at all. In fact she is talking to all the other dental staff in the room about mammograms, aerobics, shopping, etc. There is another lady sitting there making notes in the chart based on what the lady who is cleaning says. At one point I hear her say, "He only gets a C for brushing" as she shoots me a glare. This got my anger started. After she was done, the dentist came over and looked in his mouth, gets up and walks away. The hygeniest shows us to the reception/lobby area where she proceeds to say, "He needs to do a better job brushing, Joshua you got a C today." Joshua's eyes well up with tears. I shoot her a glare and say, "Well, why don't you just announce it to everyone?" She then proceeds to tell me that he is ready for retainers and hands me a paper with information. Does this not warrant a discussion with the dentist?

Needless to say, I replied, "Well, we'll see. I don't believe we will be back." I left angry and with tears coming down my face. How dare anyone disrespect my child and not give him the privacy any patient deserves. And why in the heck do you think I would come back and let you put my son in retainers when you don't feel we are important enough to discuss it with.

Needless to say, we now have a new dentist and appointments set up. I was so excited to call the other dentist and tell them I would be back to get the boys' records. Call it a mama bear protecting her cub.

Report card day

Friday, Joshua came home from school with his report card in hand. Growing up, though I usually got pretty good grades, I still dreaded taking home the report card. There was always this fear that I would have messed something up big time and one of my grades would be really bad. I've never had to worry about Joshua, but must admit 3rd grade is really hard. Not to mention, the Danville School System grading scale is pretty difficult. When I was young, we went on a 90, 80, 70, etc grading scale. At Danville, you have to have at least a 95 percent to get an A-. I would have flunked out of school on that scale!

So anyway, Joshua brought home his report card with all A's!!! I couldn't be more proud of him. He seems to absorb most everything he reads. He's often asking us to quiz him on hard math questions. They also recently began cursive writing. Let me tell you, Joshua's cursive writing is so much better than his printing. Not sure why, but he loves it. So, just want to say again how much I love my boys and how proud I am of the little men they are becoming!

A few pics of the boys!!

We got our first snow today. Zachary wasn't sure what to think:




Also, I always tell people how Zachary likes to torture his big brother, well here is the proof!




Actually, they do really love each other alot!

Joshua, the usher!!

Joshua came home from school today beaming. He was so excited about something and was bursting to tell me. He was chosen (1 of 5 third graders) in the school to be a North Elementary Usher this year. Basically it means that he will be responsible for showing people around the school when there are visitors (grandparents, etc) who come to the school. It's a pretty special thing as the students must be nominated and also have no discipline issues for the entire first trimester. Joshua has had a lot of trouble with talking in class for the past few years so this has been a huge feat for him! I am so proud!

Halloween Hijinks!

You've waited to patiently, maybe its because you truly don't care, but I'm finally getting Halloween pictures posted. Our evening started with a temper tantrum from Zachary who evidentally didn't want to be Pooh, he wanted to be the pirate his big brother was. Actually, he wanted the hat and the sword. He was not impressed with the hat part of the pooh costume. Once we got him outside where he could walk around freely, he perked up.

While trick or treating, we met the biggest dog we have ever seen. This was a 175 pound (bull dog, I think) who Zachary just loved! Just goes to prove that the boy has no fear! He even gave the enormous dog a hug before we left their house.

We carved (mom did anyway) pumpkins too. They turned out pretty good, but neither one of the boys was interested in helping too much! They both hated the feelng of the pumpkin guts.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com