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Tristin has a beautiful smile. His teeth are very straight, but he has been complaining that his lower teeth feel crowded sometimes. At his last dental appointment, his dentist recommended an orthodontic consultation, but only after I told her I was concerned. Today, we visited the orthodontist she recommended. Here is what she found:

Dental Class II right side (this means the molars on his right side are slightly gaping in the bite). Dental Class I left side (this means these molars meet up as they ought to). There is an excessive vertical overlap of the front teeth. The upper teeth are ahead of the lower teeth 1-2mm when he has his teeth together (1-2mm is excessive?). There is a slight amount of crowding of the upper and lower teeth. The center line of the lower two teeth is shifted to the right. The upper and lower center lines are off by 2mm or less. There is enamel wear on the upper and lower front teeth due to the overlap. The upper and lower jaws relate normally to each other. The outline of his facial profile is balanced.

This just doesn't sound that bad to me. So, can anyone tell me why they recommended braces for 1 1/2-2 years, for a total of $4900?

I also presented a question to the orthodontist. I had braces for a couple of years, and had a retainer for a year or two at night. I also had an upper and a lower cemented retainer. The upper stayed on a couple of years, and the lower stayed on for 10 years. When the lower was removed, the teeth migrated to their previous crowding. I asked her what is going to prevent this from happening to Tristin, as well. She told me that studies done 10-15 years ago showed that this happens with 80% of orthodontic patients. The bones and gums are programmed to shift teeth forward. As I was in this 80% group, Tristin probably would be, too. The solution? Wear a retainer at night for life.

So, if I'm getting this right, we can pay $4900, and then replace and/or maintain retainers for the rest of Tristin's life. If he should ever get sick of wearing his retainer, we lose the entire investment. Can anyone tell me why I should even consider this?

Let me also say that orthodontists have a way with assuming that you are going to go along with their recommendations. They start going over whether the child wants ceramic or metal braces on the top teeth, and that they will cost an extra $200 on the bottom, and make the child think that this is all a done deal. The child says that he would probably have to take the cheaper option, at which point you are grateful that your son recognizes that finances are an issue here, and you interject that this is all contingent on whether or not the finances will work out at all. They act as though you are ready to shell out the money without hesitation, and when they spring the $4900 cost on you and you tell them that you don't think you can find that kind of money in your budget, they look confused. Then they tell you that they can work with you on payment plans. They also tell you that they have already discounted their services by $200 because you have other children that will probably need orthodontia, as well. At this point, you tearfull explain that it is just not in the budget, leave the office, wiping away the tears of guilt you have from not being able to afford something as necessary as orthodontia for straight teeth, and then apologize to your 13-year-old in the car while tears stream down your cheeks, explaining that it just isn't in the budget, and maybe if Dad's new company takes off, or maybe if his current company starts giving out bonuses again someday, if they even survive the recession, or maybe if the tree in the back yard starts growing greenbacks...

Let me see...Tristin's teeth are the straightest of all of our children's teeth. Seven children times $5000 (probably more, with the other children's teeth being worse) equals $35000+.

I think I'll start saving now for Benjamin's orthodontic treatments. They are inevitable, as his teeth are actually crooked. In the meantime, unless I hear a really good reason to shell out this kind of money for each of my children's straight teeth, I think I'll pass. And I refuse to feel guilty about it any more.

Appreciate the Good Times

I have a friend from high school who has breast cancer. She doesn't have a family history of breast cancer, and is extremely young for getting the disease - just 33 years old. She noticed a lump one day and had it checked out. It was found to be pre-cancerous, but they also scanned the other breast, and found a 1.5cm lump that was cancerous. It was only stage one cancer, luckily, but she had to have a mastectomy. Now she's going through chemo, just in case it has spread at all.

My friend has a very supportive husband (her high school sweetheart, also a friend of mine) and two little boys. This has been a trying experience for her, but she is very resilient, and I am confident she will pull through it.

The thing learned from this is - do your monthly breast exams. It is worth it.

MyPlate

This spring I got frustrated with my waist to hip ratio. Two factors weighted into this. First, I finally made the pants and jacket that Merle gave me the pattern & materials for at Christmas, and found that my hips and waist did not even come close to the same size on the pattern, which made making the pants a little difficult. The problem was that my waist was almost the same measurement as my hips, and that meant that they were three sizes apart. The second frustration was that all of my jeans and khakis were baggy in the hips and rear, yet tight in the waist. They just weren't comfortable.

My solution was to find a calorie-counting web site. MyPlate is a free food diary that I found. It has you enter in how much weight you'd like to lose per week, and then tells you how many calories you can have each day to meet that goal. Then, you easily enter in everything you eat, and it lets you know how many calories you have left. When I say you easily enter in what you eat, I mean it. It has nutritional facts entered in on almost everything you eat, like brand name store bought items, generics, even restaurant food, and calculates the calories for you. I highly recommend it to anyone with daily access to the internet. If you can get on more frequently, it will work even better for you, as then you don't just review what you ate, but will have that tool to tell you how much more you can have in a day.

I stuck with it for about 10 days, which was enough to get a good handle on how much I can eat each day. I was a little surprised at first, because I found I was eating about 350 extra calories per day. After a few days, I was able to stay with the plan, and was able to lose those extra pounds. I also found that when I ate in a restaurant, I went seriously over.

The next time I weighed myself, which was about 3 weeks later, I had lost 5 lbs. My jeans are now fitting nicely, except for my pair of low-rise jeans, which are falling off of me now. They were already loose, but now I think I'll just get rid of them.

I found that cutting down on calories makes you hungry at first. But once you know how many calories the foods you eat have in them, you can make healthier choices, and you won't be hungry any more, both because your stomach gets used to less, and because you get the knowledge you need to start eating lower calorie foods that will fill you up. Eating more frequently also helps, somehow.

Bye-Bye Binkey

Okay, we normally call it a nukie, but I thought the alliteration was worth the deviation.

Katie has been without the nuk for most of the past week. I had been taking them away each time I got her up from bed and storing them in her crib, but she figured out how to get them out of there. Then, I placed them in a basket on her dresser, but she climbed up it and dumped the basket to get to them. So, when neither of them could be found, we went without. It wasn't so bad this time. Meaning she did go to sleep with minimal fuss.

There was one day last week when Dallin found one in his bedroom and gave it to her after she'd been without for three days. She walked around with it for a while and wouldn't let me take it away, but then she wanted a snack and gave it to me later, and I hid it on top of the fridge. She hasn't had it since. Yay!

Brandon's Crossing-Over

Brandon crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts at our May Pack Meeting. He earned his Arrow of Light, the highest rank in Cub Scouting, and the only rank award that carries over to the Boy Scout uniform. Way to go, Brandon! On to Eagle you go!

Ben's Birthday

Ben turned eight on May 23rd. His party was last Saturday. He had a few friends over for pizza, games, a pinata, cake & ice cream.

The pinata is always the most exciting part for the kids. Unfortunately, this pinata, purchased at Target, was very lousy. The head got knocked off first. It was filled with paper, which explains why I couldn't fit much candy in the dumb thing.

They did enjoy playing with the head, though.

We went through all the children twice, and still couldn't bust it open.

We probably should have used string, not twine, as on the second round the twine broke frequently.Eventually, I pulled the paper out of the head, and they were able to get a few pieces of candy with each hit. They eventually enlisted the help of the older brothers. I'm not sure which one took the final whack, but it just wasn't very impressive.

So, the moral of the story is not to buy a pinata from Target. Next time, I'll go to Party America, where I have bought them in the past.

FYI

Katie came down with a fever of 102.7 very early Sunday morning.  She had a slight cough and runny nose, but I'm not sure that had anything to do with the fever.  She also had a gross diaper last night, but that could be because her dad fed her raisins.  She is very fussy, but seems to be plenty energetic.  I'm hoping this is the same thing Melissa's family had last week, as we were with them on Saturday night.

Katie Tries It On

Katie is very interested in what she wears these days. She knows that if she wants to go outside, she should bring me socks & shoes. She can even say both "socks" and "shoes." She knows that when I put her pretty dresses on her with her tights that we will be going to church, and is very concerned if I don't get her shoes and overcoat on her when she thinks I look like I'm ready to go. She also likes accessorizing. She tried on my bracelet at church last week, and the next day I found her with her toy stacking rings on her wrists. She has also figured out that purses are great accessories. However, she hasn't quite figured out how those go on yet.

P.S. Leisa, if you could see her from the side, you'd see that her hair has the same curls as your Katie. I wish I could see the two of them together. They look so similar in their pictures!

William's Concert

William's concert went very well.  He sang "This Land is Your Land" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee" with the choir.  It was nice to hear children singing in tune, and singing willingly, besides.

We were a little surprised by how little seating there was in the auditorium.  The music teachers involved obviously can't do math - 80 children times 2 parents each would have easily filled the available seating, and it was advertised as open to the public, and children welcome.  Our family alone provided 16 fans to watch William, as both sets of grandparents, two aunts, and two cousins joined our immediate family. So, children piled onto laps and on the floor of the stage, and many adults stood or sat in the aisles.

There were some other surprises, as well.  The first was that Pete Seeger was not there.  It was advertised as his 90th birthday celebration, so I naturally assumed he was going to be there.  It didn't say anywhere on the invitation that William was given that these gatherings were being held all over the United States, which would have tipped me off.  

Another surprise was the part where they did a presentation on the computer software program that had evaluated the children.  I knew they were going to demonstrate it, but the developer was asked to give a speech about it, as well, and it went on for a bit.  The good surprise was that they asked for an adult to try it out.  Melissa volunteered, and was given a copy of the software.

The next surprise was that they played a few Internet videos about music from the laptop they were using.  They were the types of things you would find on YouTube.  One of them had a man singing "Goodnight Sweetheart" (badly, I might add) to a litter of puppies to put them to sleep.  It was cute, but not what I would expect during a sing-along concert.

The final surprise was that they had us sing every verse ever written for each of the songs, including about 11 verses of "We Shall Overcome" at the end of the concert.  Wow, did it go on forever!

All in all it was a good event.  William had a good singing experience, Melissa and Jessica got to network a little with some music educators, besides Melissa coming away with a freebie that she can use in her field of expertise.  We also got cookies at the end, which made my kids happy.

Aaron and Tristin had to scoot out right away to get to Priesthood meeting, where they sustained Jeff Kerr, a counselor from the Burnsville Stake Presidency, to the Minneapolis Stake Presidency (n case I didn't mention it in a prior post, yes, Aaron was called as a High Councilor in our new stake).  The rest of us chatted for a while, then left - almost without Ben.  Luckily, I always do a "sound off" with the kids when we get in the van.  They each have a number, oldest to youngest, and they shout theirs off in order after I yell, "Sound off!"  As we didn't hear our sweet #4's voice, I ran back to the building, where I found Ms. Lozito, one of Southview's music teachers, coming out the door with Ben.  He had just told her that I wouldn't leave without him because we sound off!  He wasn't in the least worried.  What a great kid!

Healthy Katie

Katie's 18-month check-up was yesterday.  She is very average in height and weight.  She is now 31 1/2 inches tall, which is the 50th percentile, and 23.4 lbs., which is the 45th percentile.  She is healthy and developing very well.  The best part of the appointment was when the nurse gave her the DTaP immunization.  She tensed up her leg while the shot was given, but didn't even so much as sniffle.  What a brave little girl!

Vitamin D and Me

So, I've struggled with depression this winter more than I ever have before.  I now think I know why.  

After I weaned Katie last fall, I found that milk wasn't agreeing with my stomach very well anymore by the glassful.  I found I could drink it on cold cereal, but that was about all I could tolerate.  Yogurt was having the same effect, so I quit eating it, as well.  Cheese and ice cream were fine, as long as I didn't go overboard.

When I eat oatmeal, I prefer just some sugar and applesauce, and that was what I ate for breakfast for most mornings this past winter, which means I wasn't getting much milk at all.  And where does vitamin D come from?  Fortified milk and sunshine.  Neither of which I got much of over the past 6 months.

So, last week I saw my doctor for a physical.  We discussed my dietary change, and he asked me how I was getting vitamin D into my diet.  I told him I wasn't sure - did it come in green and leafy veggies?  No dice.  He decided to do a blood draw, and sure enough, my levels were through the floor.  The recommended level is between 33 & 100 units - I was at 11.5.  The nice part is that all I need is a supplement of D-3 (the kind the sun produces in our bodies naturally).

It turns out vitamin D deficiency can cause depression, along with a lot of other illnesses.  Vitamin D is what helps calcium become absorbed in our bodies, so even if we eat a lot of calcium-rich foods other than milk, without enough vitamin D, we can become calcium-deficient.  

I know people who move to Minnesota often have a hard time with winter blues, due to the lack of sunshine.  I've even felt it over the darkest days of winter, to some degree, before this year.  Now I know why, and how to fix it!

Katie's Easter Dress

Here is one of Katie by herself. Don't you love the dress? My good friend Kim made this for Katie as a baby gift when she was born. I was so excited to put it on her for Easter. We have discovered that Katie loves her dress. Aaron tried to change her out of it for her nap on Easter, and she wouldn't have it. She screamed and threw a royal fit until he quit trying, and she napped in it. Then, this past Saturday, she found the dress hanging up after I had washed it, and wanted to wear it. She was very upset with me when I wouldn't put it on her. She was thrilled to get to wear it again on Sunday, and repeated her tantrum at taking it off that afternoon.

Aaron and Me

It was harder to get this shot, with kids roaming around trying to bump the laddar as we waited for the camera to shoot.

Family Portrait

Aaron set up a laddar and we used the camera's timer to get this shot on Easter Sunday.

Dad and Katie on Easter

We took some photos on Easter Sunday after church. This is my favorite one.

Dallin's Fort

Dallin built this great fort in our front yard by the house. He found wood and foam board in the garage, along with string, containers, blankets, chairs, the old car seat, and invited some stuffed animals along. He and his friends have enjoyed playing in it. The only down side is having to put it all away so it doesn't get rained on.

Laundry Room

I can now call my mud room my laundry room.  With the HE washer and dryer stacked, I can actually fold my laundry in the laundry room, and even keep all of the baskets in there.  I can even fit my vacuum, brooms and mops in the closet, now that the dirty laundry baskets are under the folding table.  I will eventually build a real folding table and shelving, rather than using my card table.

The best part is that our piano room is no longer covered in laundry! No more fear of visitors seeing my laundry covering the front room.  Yay!!!  

Where are the Pacifiers?

I have weaned my children off of their pacifiers at around 9 months, prior to Katie.  She only took hers at naptime and bedtime, so I never weaned her from it.  I always throw her pacifier back into her crib when I get her out of her crib, but her brothers aren't so careful.  We have three, and two of them were on clips, so they were pretty easy to find.  But Katie figured out how to pull them off of her clips last week, and they started disappearing.  

Unfortunately, on Sunday night, we couldn't find a pacifier.  She had one at naptime, and I remember seeing it on the kitchen counter before I took Tristin to BYD and went visiting teaching, but I searched all over, and couldn't find one.  Katie didn't fall asleep until midnight.  

Yesterday, thinking they must have ended up in that black hole, we cleaned Dallin and Aidan's room.  They weren't there.  She didn't nap yesterday.  She did fall asleep after only 20 minutes of whining last night.  However, she has been in her crib, jabbering, for the last two hours now, when she should be napping. 

She will be 18 months old on May 1st.  What should I do?  See the survey on the right and let me know what you think.

William's First Select Choir

To my disappointment, not all of my boys have been terribly interested in singing. Most of them have some natural talent, but only William has taken a special interest in it so far. He has been singing in our church choir, and has had a solo in a school concert. He recognizes that he will probably be teased for his interest in singing a little bit by the boys, but has decided that he doesn't care about that.

In school, they use the software program Singing Coach, and was the second-highest scorer in the 3rd grade at Southview (he claims the 1st highest is actually a really terrible singer, but she had so much help from the teacher that that is why she was in 1st).  Due to his high score, he was invited to be a part of the first-ever Minnesota Singing Challenge Sing-Along.  His first select choir!!  I am thrilled, of course.

The concert is being held on Sunday, May 3rd at the Perpich Center for Arts Education at 3pm. It is a free event for all (so if you want to come, feel free), and will consist of 80 third-graders from 20 different schools. They have been instructed to learn My Country 'Tis of Thee and This Land is Your Land by memory, and to wear red, white or blue, and a reception will follow.  They will be honoring Peet Seeger on his 90th birthday.  You may know him for his works "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)," made popular by Peter, Paul and Mary, or "Turn, Turn, Turn!" made popular by the Byrds.

It will be a crazy day for us, with the stake division happening that day.  My parents are coming, and since the Lakeville Stake Conference is being held in the morning, that frees up Merle & Reo for the afternoon, so they can come, too.  Aaron will probably have to book out of there pretty quickly afterward, as our new Minneapolis Stake has announced a Stake Priesthood meeting for 4 or 4:30pm (I can't remember which).  As long as the stake center is still the Crystal building that day, it is within 10 minutes of the concert, so he should be just fine (I've been suppositioning that it will be moving to the Bloomington building, as none of the Mpls. Stake's wards will be meeting in the Crystal building after the division, as far as I can tell).  For those of you who don't come, I'll be sure to update you as to how it went!

New Stake

This past Saturday at the adult session of Stake Conference, it was announced that the SC Stake is being formed on May 3rd, and the other stakes in the area are being realigned that same day.

What this means for us is that W ward is being annexed from the B Stake and becoming part of the M Stake. That means we are no longer in the same stake as my in-laws or sister-in-law & family. The B Stake will have as its northern boundary the M River, and will extend further south (I think to the I border), so it is also annexing Bl and EP wards.

The M Stake is giving up the MG and ML wards to the A Stake. I'm guessing this means that the Bl building will become the new M Stake Center, as I don't think that there are any units left in the stake that meet in the C building (later edit - I was wrong about this; there is one ward there, and it remains the M stake center). The M Stake will include P, ML, TC 1st (Spanish-speaking), LN, and the three wards from the B Stake that I previously mentioned.

As Presidents P and K both reside north of the river, the B Stake will get a new stake presidency (watch out, Reo!). Everyone north of the river holding stake callings will be released, including Aaron as a High Councilor. People keep asking me if I'm relieved to have him back. My answer to them is that I'm not counting on it. The other High Councilor's wife from our ward figures her husband will be brought back into a ward calling, and is glad. But, I'm sure there are a few High Councilors in the M Stake who are in the same position as he and Aaron, being moved into the A Stake, so there is a chance either or both of them will be called to replace them. As Aaron's only been on the High Council for 3 months, it seems likely to me that he will.

Even though it takes Aaron away a lot on Sundays and once in a while during the week, it hasn't been that much more than before, other than the part where I have seven children to manage on my own for sacrament meetings a few times a month. Aaron has had callings that have required him to be in early Sunday morning meetings for all but a year of our marriage, and he has always had responsibilities during the week, as well. Plus, he's been learning a lot on the High Council. I have to say that I have been happy to support him in his calling. He is a fabulous husband, father, and church leader, and finds balance in all of it, somehow. And if he is not called to the M Stake High Council, he'll still magnify whatever calling he has. He isn't the sort of person to take a break, no matter what his calling.

I remember when our branch was first formed and he was the finance clerk, he started getting depressed over the winter. There just wasn't much for him to do. He felt like he needed more. I discreetly called up Pres. C, told him the situation, and asked him if there weren't some inactives he could put on Aaron's home teaching route? President C had thought with all of our kids, Aaron would want a light calling and light home teaching route, but was happy to throw some challenges at him. Aaron perked up quite a bit when he got his new home teaching assignment! He finally had work to do, and the branch's home teaching stats rose all of a sudden. It wasn't long before they made him the Ward Mission Leader. I just recently told Aaron my part in that.

The test was when he was called as the Executive Secretary a few years ago. He suddenly didn't have much work he could do with individuals, and was worried that he would get down again. However, he instead took it as a learning opportunity. He absorbed everything he could from our Bishop, and remained a diligent home teacher. He found time for studying (not only scriptures, but languages, physics and other areas of interest). He found ways to improve himself and to serve those around him. He didn't let the calling determine his service. He is going to put in 100% of what is expected of him, no matter where he is put.

And that's why I love him.