Archives for December 2008

Guessing time is over!

Mainly because none of you guessed anything! Stinkers!!
Last week we joined a group of fellow homeschoolers for little rock climbing!
We had a blast and got through several climbs before the rain settled in for good. All the boys climbed at least twice. Baby girl would have no part of all those ropes and such.
Number three son ventured up first…

Then number two son went up…

And came back down….

It was neat watching them make it all the way to the top to then traverse down. It it hadn’t been such an unflattering angle I might have tried it. Plus I was in day two of looking like this. It just wasn’t my best day!

By the time we were almost done it was getting a little cold and it was raining. Number one son was chilly!

There were several labs running around and it was fun to watch my second son play with them. He’d love to have a big ole dog to wrestle with, sleep next to and run wild through the woods chasing him/her.

We had a great day. The only thing that would have made it better would have been some sunshine.

So all you non-guessers who have been anxiously awaiting by your computers on the edge of your seats….
There it is.
You can now sleep tonight.

Stinkers!

IN HIM,

2 Comments

Posted: December 11, 2008 by Julie |Category: Homeschooling | Tags:

My Dentist…the miracle worker

Ok, so you guys know about my recent experience at the dentist office right? Any of you who missed the excited and somewhat vicodin-induced post a couple nights ago please feel free to click here! What can I say but yea to pain meds when you actually need them.

You’ll rejoice with me in knowing that the heartbeat in my gums has now been reduced from a whale-size beat to that of a small rodent. And it only hurts in the evenings. The pain is subsiding each day and today I got the lovely flesh (black) stitches taken out. So I don’t look like I have a spider fighting me for the front and center position in my mouth.

I don’t like spiders.

So back to this miracle worker guy.
We all know no one takes the place of the real miracle worker but my dentists, they try! Way to go guys (and girls)!

After having my stitches taken out today the good doctor set about resurfacing my dull, temporary plastic foreign object in my mouth that was supposed to be a tooth and which was also fighting with the spider for the coveted front and center position in my once beatiful mouth.

What’s so great about the best seat anyway?

So back to the resurfacing…..
This "way cool" CAD machine went to work redesigning my tooth surface with a little help from sweet as a button Alicia and the good doctor himself. Quite the team, they are!

Ok now I have Yoda from Starwars running through my mind. "The force is strong with this young one it be! MMMmmm."
You remember how he says everything backwards?

Ok, the tooth, the tooth.
I’m not going to tell any of you what CAD means because if you are technogeeky like me you’ll already know and if you’re one of those relationship people you won’t ever care.
Any guesses though?

So about 10 minutes of this cool machine doing it’s thing and we have something that is beginning to look like tooth forming in the bowels of the dental office. Out it comes….all 1/4 inch of the thing. How do they keep up with such small things? A dentist office definiely would not survive at my house.

The good doc grinds (with diamonds ….oooo….ahhhh), pops that puppy in my mouth, grinds some more, pops it out, grinds again. Back in, back out, back in, back out, then on to polishing……

"Make it really shiny"

Some cement to stick that bugger onto the totally inadequate plastic first tooth and voila!

I have gone from this

To this!

Okay, you decide…
Miracle worker OR not???

Love ya Drs. Steve, Paul and Melissa….
I shall proclaim your reconstructive abilities from the highest buidlings in Liberty! Or at least from our tree house in the back yard,

And thanks to Joan and Bridgett for offering hours of entertainment while the good doctors are working their magic. And to Chrissa for our in depth discussion about toothbrushes. I’m sure we changed someone’s universe. And to sweet Kelli for encouraging me through the stages of grief when almost losing a very important fight to a spider and a plastic impostor!!! You’re the heat Kelli.

Dr W. You get lots of kudos today. Good job! I really do look like Julia! Don’t cha think!!!

Blessings from this Julia Roberts look alike thanks to another day spent at my friendly neighborhood dentist office.
IN HIM alone….

2 Comments

Posted: December 10, 2008 by Julie |Category: Other Happenings | Tags:

More Christmas Tree Farm Photos

I wanted to show you a couple more of the pictures I took from the farm Saturday. The house and the tree on the farm are so beautiful.

Isn’t that amazing?

Here are the nice guys who shook almost all of the dead pine needles out of the tree. They have this cool machine that shakes the trees. It’s quite an operation.

And these guys were trying to get the largest tree into the back of their pickup. The thing had to be 12 feet tall. I wondered where they were going to put it.

I’m still waiting for someone to take a stab at our outing a few days ago. Here’s another picture as a hint!

Any guesses??
Come on now!

What boys do at Christmas Tree Farms…

I promised a more encouraging post than last night’s “All I want for Christmas” post so here goes.

But I have to warn you I just took my second dose of pain medicine so if I go off the deep end (again) you know why.

My hubbie left to go out of town for the week today. Baby girl cried all the way to the dentist. They all hate it when daddy leaves.

We picked out our tree on Saturday.
And here’s what boys do at Christmas Tree Farms…

They run wild through the rows of trees with light sabers…

They stab perfectly innocent trees into submission…

Who me??

“Hey, now that you are looking, check this out mom!”

The the big boy came on the scene to show the smaller ones how to slay those Christmas Trees.

It’s all about the saw man!

Then dragging the wounded tree back to the car!

We picked a pine this year to save on money. It’s a fat fellow. Maybe this week we’ll gets lights and ornaments on it.

Otherwise I’m going to need more than pain medicine to deal with the wrath of my kids if there are no lights on the tree by tomorrow night!
Hey, any of you guys wanna come over to help. I promise I won’t smile at you.
Lest you be really scared!!

IN HIM,

2 Comments

Posted: December 8, 2008 by Julie |Category: Homeschooling | Our Family, Our Lives | Tags:

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

Really, I only want one.

I’ve had lots of trouble with one of my front teeth since breaking it in about the 12th grade. It’s been through everything a tooth can go through. Braces, getting broken, root canal, apicoectomy. It’s troubled me for years so I finally gave into the idea that I HAD to have a dental implant and we pulled the tooth last week. I don’t think it really registered that I was yanking roots out of bone until the dentist actually had my prized tooth between pliers and was yanking the thing from my mouth. It was about that time that I realized, "Oh crap, I’m going to have a big ole hole there!"

Call me dense. Maybe it was denial but it worked. At least until the dentist had a death grip on my tooth.
So now I have this wonderful device called a partial. Can you say 90 year old grandma?
It’s horrible. Oh, did I mention the spider-like stitches (in the flesh colored shade of BLACK) protruding from my flesh-colored PINK gums?
I’m pretty, let me tell ya.
All in time for Christmas.
Yippee!

The bone must heal before the implant can be placed. That’s about 4 months. Then the bone has to heal around the implant before the crown can be placed. Another 4 months.
Let’s do the math.
4 + 4 = 8
8 MONTHS I have to wear this thing. It’s like a retainer with a tooth glued on it.

It’s horrible.
Eating is worse.
Smiling is worse than eating.
How do you not smile for 8 months?

I think I’m going to find a hole to stick my head in.
Oh, I can’t do that because it makes my stitches throb.
Throb, yea, you know, like a heartbeat. You know…boom, boom, boom.
Yep, that kind of throbbing!

If I wasn’t so vain I’d take a picture of the thing but even I can’t do that.
Did I mention I now have denture adhesive on my person?
UGH!!!
I think I’m gonna die!

Since I’m too vain to take a photo of my own mug, this one will have to do! Just so you get the idea!

Sigh….

Note to all who read this blog:
Uplifting and more encouraging post coming up. I promise!
Guess what we did last week?
Here’s a hint.

3 Comments

Posted: December 7, 2008 by Julie |Category: Other Happenings | Tags:

A little Photoshop Elements 6 – Playing around

I got a chance to actually play around with Photoshop the other day and wanted to see which photo you liked best….

Here’s the original image:

Here’s one with contrast bumped and a little color adjustment:

And here it is in black and white. I think I may like this one best.

Which one do you like best?
Happy day-after Hump Day!

6 Comments

Posted: December 4, 2008 by Julie |Category: Photography and Tips | Tags:

The Actual Schoolroom!

For many months I’ve been meaning to take photos of the schoolroom to show you guys but it just never seems to happen so when I snapped a few photos of the kids the other day I figured, "Perfect time to give them a glimpse at least."

We are blessed to have a basement in our house. I grew up with a basement and love them. We live on a sloping lot so our basement actually has windows and is light, not dark and dingy. We also have two outside doors which help provide light. Our schoolroom in in the basement. This particular room has been a bedroom, then it was the schoolroom, then a bedroom again and now it’s ,again, the schoolroom.

We love it. Each kid has a desk. We have the computer in there. And there’s a bathroom attached which makes for very short bathroom breaks! It’s great!

So here’s the couple of shots from the other day! These were taken from my desk.

That’s all for now!
IN HIM,