Karson Needs Your Prayers

My sweet baby Karson is going to the dentist today. Some of you know about our last visit. BUT, for those that don't, Karson has TERRIBLE teeth like her parents (and grandparents). I wish I could make a long story short, but who are we kidding, I LOVE to talk (write, whatever)! She saw Dr. Barbee, who is a splendid dentist, in March. She had to get a silver crown, pulpotomy, a composite filling, etc. She was given laughing gas which took the edge off, but the shots were still painful. She looked like Hannibal Lecture with her mouth pryed open and metal everywhere. Barbee told me that he needed to work on every baby tooth in her little head. SO, here I was with decisions to make. We had just got dental insurance but it would take 6 months to kick in. I wrestled with the decision to spend that kind of money on her baby teeth which didn't seem to be giving her any problems. I mean God gave us two sets of teeth, right? I think there is a reason for that--Halloween candy, gummies, cookies, apple juice, PEZ, etc. God knows that kids can't resist those temptations (shoot, I can't either). We brush Karson's teeth faithfully and try our best to limit her sweets. Return to the endless saga, I'm sitting in the backless, circular, spinning chair next to Hannibal and wanting to race/roll around the office and think things over. I already knew we were going to have to sell blood, bone marrow, vehicles to pay for this visit. We bought a $20 bargain tube of magic toothpaste, left and told him we'd be back in August when our insurance would pay for some of the work. I called everyone I knew. I needed LOTS of opinions on the matter. My sister gave me the best advice (no offense to the others that offered). She said, "my friends who have kids in that position just wait until they are in pain and go." I'm not telling anyone else to do this, but this sounded like good advice to me. I didn't want to sell Isaac to the circus to pay for Karson's next visit, and how much should I expose my 5 year old to? I don't want her to dread going to the dentist each time knowing what's going to happen. Chances are, her permanent teeth will be just as bad (like mine). We're sitting at church last Sunday, and Karson is chomping on GoldFish crackers when she tells me her tooth is hurting. I look in her orange, goopy mouth and see a crack in her bottom molar which I can almost stick my fingernail underneath and she has a hole in the top molar on the same side. UGH. Here we are again, 10:15 this a.m. Hannibal: Part II. Pray for her, that God will give her peace and calm her nerves. She is a brave little girl that has endured a lot with her poor baby teeth.

UPDATE: Karson's visit went well. The dentist couldn't do any work until February. I was glad that they didn't see any urgency in the matter. At least we'll have our tax money then =)! We purchased some flossers and ACT II mouthwash at Wal-Mart which will hopefully aid in preventing more dental work. Thanks for all the sweet emails, comments and thoughts.

Oh, Christmas 2007

Karson's mini-Hallmark tree and our gargantuan Hallmark tree (notice how ours is wedged between the furniture).

Matt and I received this Santa Claus as a wedding present. It's hand painted by one of Debbie's friends. What an amazing talent!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around our house. I feel like I've wrapped about 100 presents which I actually enjoy. There's an art to gift-wrapping. I LOVE watching the "professionals" at the anchor stores do it so gracefully. My corners aren't crisp and perfect and my tape isn't transparent and double sided, BUT SpongeBob and Princess gift wrap aren't an option at Dillards (or Toys R Us--btw, why don't they gift wrap?). We put our tree up on Saturday and decorated it with Hallmark which my Mom started collecting in the 70's. She divided her slew up with Shannon and I once we got married. Karson has a mini-Hallmark miniature tree in her bedroom. It's only toppled over once. Both trees are brother-magnets. It would be nice to have a tree repellent spray but oh well. We've only lost a few ornaments through the years. I've managed to replace them with the 1/2 price after Christmas Hallmarks, and eBay has loads of them. Melissa D. graciously took the kids Christmas photos this afternoon. I can hardly wait to see them.

My favorite ornament called "A Santa-Full". Santa has cookies in his belly. That adorable glowing Santa in the background was made by my sweet grandmother and some ladies from her church. They also make Halloween pumpkins and Christmas trees (below).

Isaac's favorite Hallmark is "Buzz" which makes a fun laser sound. This will probably be Buzz's first and last Christmas. Miles loved the Christmas ornament boxes.

Hiding in the Christmas tree box. I wish I loved boxes as much as my kids do.
Carefully selecting the ornaments.
Matt piecing together our green pipecleaner. It's prelit and requires very little maintenance. I prefer real trees. My family always had artificial ones growing up. When Matt and I married, we got real trees the first couple of years. I love the smell, the look, everything. BUT, things changed when we got two dogs, had three kids and I needn't say more. It's just to much of a hassle, but I'm looking forward to getting real trees again in the future. They are worth the effort (but you can't store them in the attic, they aren't prelit besides bird droppings, and we don't own a truck which is why we didn't mulch this year).

Thank You Lord for Loving ME

MY TURKEYS!

I learned the true meaning of thankfulness Monday night attending a Thanksgiving dinner. We drove downtown to West 10th and pulled up to a delipidated tri-plex with a concrete porch and three rooms total. It was hard to tell which rooms were which except for a few clues: a card table and raggedy couch in the first room, bare mattresses propped up against the wall in the second room, and the third room doubled as a kitchen and laundry room. I met some fine folks Monday night and realized how small my problems really are. I take a lot of things in my life for granted and sure do spend a lot of time coveting things I wish I had. I've never known what it's like to wear dirty clothes everyday, sleep on a mattress without sheets (except for "roughing it" at church camp), gone hungry, had loads of medical problems beyond my control, come from a broken home full of abuse and hardship. God sure has been good to me, and I am thankful that He loves me just as much as the people I supped with on Monday night. WOW--what a gracious God we serve! Hope each of you have a blessed Thanksgiving.

Happy Birthday Mom

My mother celebrated her 56th birthday on Tuesday. I made cupcakes in honor of the occasion. Aaaww shoot, we have to eat cupcakes again--you're really tugging my arm. MeMe is a pretty special gal and our kids are lucky having her as a grandmother. I love Sandra Bullock movies and will quote one of my favorite lines from Two Weeks Notice that reminds me of my relationship with my mom. "For better or worse, she's the voice in my head pushing me to do better." I'm thankful my Mom is the voice in my head because she's a smart lady. We may not always agree, but I know that she's got my best interest at heart.

Mom retired from Dishman Elementary School a few years back. She spends her time these days taking care of her dogs Bonnie and Billy (named after her parents), helping my Dad with the chainsaw business and keeping my kids while I'm at preschool.

Through the Years

Around this time last year, our SONY VAIO computer crashed. We lost EVERYTHING from word documents, Quicken files, templates, and sadly enough all our digital photos. I felt like my life fell apart that day. We went to Best Buy and purchased a hard drive recovery kit and were hoping to recover something but had no luck. Our system was erased. Matt fortunately had a laptop computer with a few stored photos on there. I thought I would share a few of those special photos that I now miss having.

Karson's emergence into the world. Our lives forever changed.

I used this photo in our Christmas card announcing her birth.

I used this photo on her 1st birthday invitation.

Isaac was and is one of the happiest children. I took this photo shortly after his birth and used it on his birth announcement.

His hair was ULTRA curly for some odd reason and now is like astro-turf (you know the kind of hair that beads up water but doesn't actually soak it in). He was SuperMan his 1st Halloween.

I had his photo made at 18 months and one with him and Karson before baby Miles arrival.

P.S. I have a friend who recently had a SONY VAIO that crashed. Buyer beware =(. I cannot urge the importance of backing up files on your computer faithfully!!!

Crazy for Miles

Miles favorite group, without a doubt, is Gnarls Barkley. He could be in the middle of a screaming fit, slap on some Gnarls and the fit dissolves. It's amazing how children respond to the goofiest things. Gnarls song is # 1 on the mix CD in the powder blue Windstar. The song is called "Crazy" which is an appropriate title for each day of my life.

I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that place.
Even your emotions have an echo
In so much space
And when you're out there Without care,
Yeah, I was out of touch
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough
I just knew too much
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Probably
And I hope that you are having the time of your life
But think twice, that's my only advice
Come on now, who do you,
who do you, who do you, who do you think you are,
Ha ha ha bless your soul
You really think you're in control
Well, I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
Just like me
My heroes had the heart to lose their lives out on a limb
And all I remember is thinking, I wanna be like them
Ever since I was little, ever since I was little it looked like fun
And it's no coincidence I've come
And I can die when I'm done
But Maybe I'm crazy
Maybe you're crazy
Maybe we're crazy
Probably

Fall Party

The Vernon family hosted their annual fall party for our church last night. They sure can throw a fete. We had grilled burgers and dogs for dinner. Phil Whitney was giving people rides on his hovercraft. There was a hayride, horse and carrige rides, bonfire, and a singing bee. These are a few fun photos from the night.

Brooks, Karson, Chase, Tucker and Mercedes waiting for their turn in the hovercraft.

Miles, MacKenzie, Isaac, Andrew and Ben

Hanging around the bonfire.

Spooktacular Time

GROUP PHOTO at Mamaw's House

I have never seen a 2 year old more excited about trick or treating. Isaac really surprised me last night running with the pack. We've been reading Seinfeld's book about Halloween and apparently, he absorbed the whole Halloween concept.

BING BONG, yeah, it's me, give me the candy! ...those fools who are stupidly giving it away. EVERYONE WE KNOW is just giving out candy.

Don't be hatin'. Your man can sport a mullet of his own with time and patience (and a visit to the orange tent). Matt has enjoyed this wig so much that he wears it around town. People do a double take. It looks a lot like his real hair. AND, due to his current hair loss situation, it may be a permanent fix.