Toothaches do not tickle.

If you know me and my family, you know that we just have bad teeth. And if you don't know me and my family, you just learned that little tidbit of information. I guess it's just genetic and I received the "bad teeth gene" from both of my parents. I take vary good care of my teeth. I brush, I floss, I waterpik and I use Listerine a few times a week. I would prefer not to use the Listerine at all, but that nerd in me says I have to to prevent gum disease since I have such bad teeth. Maybe nerdy me is right because my gums are healthy even with "unhealthy" teeth.

Well needless to say I had a dental emergency over the weekend and it was just awful! I ended up having to have my far back upper right side molar pulled. Funny thing was, I thought for sure that tooth had a root canal and the dentist that saw me on Saturday showed me that no root canal had ever been done on that tooth. So a tooth that I thought I had saved with a root canal and a very expensive crown had to be pulled. Funny thing is, I actually don't care because it doesn't hurt anymore and to me that is worth way more. Have I mentioned I have a very, very low pain tolerance? That was probably one of the worst pain experiences I have ever had. I would put that right up there with kidney stones. Like I said, toothaches DO NOT tickle.
I have a lot more work that needs to be done on my mouth and I think going to go to the dental school because it costs about 50% less than my regular dentist and I am sure the students would have a field day with my mouth. I need to hurry and get started on that because I don't want to be in that pain again.

Learning to walk = Boo Boo's

Poor Bean bonked his eye and the bridge of his nose.  It looks like I put purple eye shadow on him.  That "learning to walk" business can be rough!

Thank goodness it didn't get his eye.



That picture at the top

I wish I could figure out how to center the picture of the kids at the top. 

Growing as a mother

When I had Cory, I was really young.  Without my mom, I have no idea where we would have ended up.  We lived with my mom until I married Jonathan when Cory was 5 years old. While living with mom I wasn't really able to be a mom myself because everything I did had to go through her - it was her house and well, does any 16 year old really know how to be a mom?  Probably not. So when I got married and moved 900 miles away, I was sort of lost.  Homesick and lost as a parent.  In a matter of 2 months, I was a new wife, living 900 miles away from everything I had ever known, mom of a 5 year old AND pregnant! There were a lot of LONG phone calls to my mom.

So over the last almost 12 years and 4 children later, I am FINALLY in my own "groove" as a mother.  With each baby, I got a little more confident and relaxed.  I think the biggest growth for me as a parent has happened since Elijah has been born.  I did have one major freak out moment when Elijah was 4 days old that Jonathan still teases me for. He calls it the day I went "bat sh!t crazy" - but in my defense I was extremely sleep deprived and hormonal.

Jonathan says I am different now - a good different.  He said he saw it immediately when Elijah was born and that I was different with Elijah as an infant than I was with the other kids.  I feel different.  I am not so uptight and I don't worry like I used to about every little thing.  Don't get me wrong, I still worry, just a little less LOL  I am calmer, more at ease.  I am better.  I wasn't bad before - I am just better, a better wife, a better mother.

Family name

Dad called last night with a little information on my name.  He said that my middle name Lamont was my paternal great, great grandmother's maiden name.  I guess when I had asked my mother, maybe she didn't know exactly who it was so I got the answer "it's a family name".  I assumed it was her family, so I looked there.  No wonder I didn't find anything!

Avocado

I got a little hungry and started thinking of what I could eat.  Being a somewhat "new" diabetic I still have to really think about what I am going to eat.  I looked in the pantry and the fridge and nothing seemed to appealing.  I then saw the avocado on the counter.  I bought 2 the other day when I made tacos for dinner.  It was just right.  While I was eating it I got to thinking how avocados are really good for you and even though they are very high in fat, they're low in saturated fat and and contain monounstaurated fat which can help lower cholesterol. They are rich in like 20 some essential nutrients and minerals which make them a complete food.  I have been giving Elijah some puree'd avocado since he was 6 months and eating "solid" food.  I make sure he gets a little at least 3 times a week.  It's such a good first baby food that I don't know why the baby food companies aren't putting it in their little jars are charging for it.  I mean that really doesn't matter to me personally since I make most of his food anyway.  Abigail loves it just cut up into little chunks.  Alex and Bella aren't real fond of it, but they will eat it. Since Avocados are considered a complete food you could actually live off of them.  I am not sure I would want to do that, but I am certainly going to certainly be adding them more to our diet, not just Elijah's :-)

Who know this little, kind-of-ugly fruit could be so wonderful!

Sunday Funday!

After church Malia, Jonathan's sister, asked if we could go to Alabama Adventure.  It's a small amusement park outside of Birmingham.  I had been there once before but didn't really do anything except walk around because I was having a problem with my neck and didn't want to get jerked around on the rides.  I am not a real fan of rides to begin with.  I don't know why because when I was younger I use to ride all the roller coasters and rides, but as I have gotten older, I have developed this fear of them.  Well I didn't have the excuse of a sore neck so I thought "Ok I'll ride a few".  First ride was the ferris wheel - seems harmless enough right?  We walked up, got in the bucket and I was fine - until the thing started moving! I thought I was going to have a come apart right there.  All the sudden I was frozen with fear.  I couldn't open my eyes, I had a death grip on the bucket rail and the pole in the middle. If Jonathan or the kids made it move the slightest bit or even began to talk, I began to freak out.  "SHHHH!!!! DON'T MOVE!!!" came out of my mouth a lot.  I actually don't think I have ever had that type of reaction to something before.  I felt bad because Alex and Bella were looking at me and saying "Momma it's OK" and Jonathan was across from me telling me "It's OK, just open your eyes".  I was finally able to open my eyes, but I still couldn't move.  I could look around just with my eyes, as long as I didn't move my head because if I moved my head the bucket would move and I just couldn't stand that feeling. So it went around and around and while I was still grasping onto the rail and the pole and couldn't move, the feeling of shear terror did start to subside a little.  I sure was glad when it was over and that we were the first off.  Jonathan laughing said he was proud of me for getting on it, but he didn't understand why I didn't want them to even talk.  You know what, I don't know why either, all I know is I was scared.

After that we went on a nice river raft ride which I was totally fine with and even rode it twice. As we were walking up to it, Alex asked me if I was going to be OK LOL Sweet kid.

I was afraid my phone would get wet so I only snapped a few pics of the first time around.  That's Malia in the red shirt with Bella.  She is seriously the best sister in law anyone could ask for - I love her!  I think she was looking at that family with the kids who were screaming - they were um, interesting. 

After that, the kids rode this bright green thing that spins in circles and goes upside down - I opted out for that one! Then the kids wanted to ride the Himalaya which I remember from my Dorney Park and New Jersey boardwalk days, but I think it was called the Enterprise back then.  I was going to sit out, but Jonathan asked me if I wanted to ride with the kids.  I figured they would like that and they did.  This ride spins you around a track that goes over bumps, there's really loud music playing and the person sitting to the outside gets squished.  I sat on the outside so I didn't squash my babies  LOL

They squashed me  LOL They really enjoyed it.  We didn't get a lot of time there yesterday so we are hoping we can go back again next weekend since the kids have season passes and we can get in for free with them.  We don't really get to take vacations and stuff like that due to having the dogs, so being able to do stuff like this or going to the lake is really special to me and I know it is to the kids too.

I told Jonathan that when we go again, I would try the ferris wheel again, but I can't guarantee that I won't have the same reaction.  I will try though  :-)