One of those days

Work was awful today. I've been on the verge of tears since lunch. Some days I know it just isn't my day. My xrays just don't look good, I miss stuff on exams, I forget to write down things, but today I actually thought I was doing pretty good. The xrays looked fine- I even took any extras before being asked. I went over treatment with patients and documented why we were or were not moving forward. But the doctor was behind schedule. Is that my fault?? Apparently so. At least thats what he said as he was screaming at the other hygienist and office manager. Don't talk to me about it- that would be entirely too mature. No, instead lets vent to the other employees so I get to hear about it from them and look like a complete moron. I really thought I'd done what I was supposed to on the exam he was pissed about. I'd talked to the patient about everything, I'd charted correctly except for one spot. But she asked a rather detailed question that she had never even mentioned to me. How am I supposed to answer a question that she never even hinted about until the doc was in the room?

So after lunch I was in a less than stellar mood. But again, I tried to take good films, even took an extra one just in case he wanted it. I buzzed for an exam half an hour early because the patient had a broken filling. Did I want to do the filling? No- I hate restorative because I'm not very good at it. But at least we could've done it if needed. So when he finally comes in to do his exam- 35 minutes after I buzzed- he was livid because I could've done the filling if I'd gotten him in there to do the exam. What exactly would you like me to do? Stand in the hall and stare at you until you stop and come look at my patient? You knew I needed an exam, and yet it's my fault that you didn't get your arse in there?? I did snap at him a little when he asked me why I didn't do it-I said "Was I supposed to prep it?"(since that'd be totally illegal). But I'm not going to fight with him in front of a patient. I'd just make myself look worse. Better to just shut up and take it.

So my next patient had a tiny filling that had popped out. The guy didn't need an exam and there wasn't any decay, so I just filled it. I'm sure when Todd finds out about that, he'll have my hide because I did the filling. Darned if you do, darned if you don't.

Welcome home, Baby

After taking about two minutes to escape from her little pen and spending the night in the garage sleeping on a sleeping bag she found in a corner, Baby has made it inside the house. I was going to bring her in for a little bit today, but hadn't gotten around to it. But then David called at lunch and asked how cold it was out there and suggested we might need to get a space heater for her. I'd already had this brilliant revelation that I could just move all her stuff into the laundry room, so I told him that- if it gets too cold, she can always stay in there. After discussing the options a little, he unwittingly agreed to let her stay in the house as long as I vaccuum daily to keep the hair situation under control.

So she wandered around for awhile to check out all the rooms. I was real nervous about her peeing on a pile of clothes since her litterbox seemed untouched, so I went looking for her. Apparently she's as excited about being here as we are about having her. (except Hope- she thinks it's just grand and is sure Baby will love her if she's just nice to her. She doesn't get it that cats aren't the most friendly of creatures) Baby was in the back of my closet behind David's guitar wedged into a little corner. I'm sure it was the most secluded spot she could find to keep to herself.

After lunch I decided to vaccuum upstairs, and unfortunately for Baby, that included the closet. So she took off out of there and I didn't go looking for her. But Hope was SO concerned that nobody knew where Baby was, so she went looking. This time Baby was under Hope's bed, in the furthest corner behind a box where you could hardly see her. I'm surprised Hope even found her. If she keeps hiding like this, David may even forget she's here.

Gotta Say, It's Looking Promising

I know nobody else cares, but since I'm married to David and dad's kid, I'm just a little excited about the World Series so far. It's been ALL Boston. Valley Christian's girls softball team could probably play as well as Colorado has done so far. I very well may be jinxing this, but in a few days Boston should be sporting another ring. Go Red Sox!

The story I don't know

I saw in the obituaries that Dan Jarms' dad died the other day. Even though he was a pastor at Faith and worked at NBC, all I remember about Dan is how his mom used to do the potty dance on the sideline at his basketball games. Mom used to make so much fun of her and thought she acted like a freak. Maybe she did. Maybe Dan was embarrassed by his mother's behavior. Maybe not. But there was a part of the story none of us knew:

Dan had a brother that died when Dan was in high school. Maybe his mom acted the way she did because she knew what it was like to lose a child. Maybe she knew that there was nothing more important than supporting your child and making sure they knew you were proud of them and cared about their interests. Maybe she knew that it wasn't enough to just sit in the bleachers as a silent spectator. Maybe we shouldn't have been so quick to think she was nutso when we didn't know the whole story. Maybe when I start to judge people based on nothing but a few isolated observations, I should remember that everyone has a story I don't know.

The Scent of........something

Naomi got sent home from daycare yesterday because she had a fever and a icky nose. So last night I gave her a bunch of decongestant and then remembered a vapor plug-in thing that I got when Hope was little. So I dug it out and plugged it in, hoping it would help keep her nose clear in the night.

This morning when I went into her room to get her, it smelled EXACTLY like the lingering scent that for the last several years has followed a certain big-haired blonde we all know and plug our nose around. If I never smelled whatever that is again, it would've been ok with me. But now that's all I smell when I open Naomi's door. Lovely. I wonder how long it will take to air out her room. At least it isn't as strong as L's stuff always was.

I just remembered another Hope story

When we were driving back here, we stopped at rest stops fairly often for potty breaks. The second day we'd stopped about three times, and none of the times had Hope actually gone to the bathroom. So she'd been sitting on the toilet trying to pee, and I heard someone else come into the bathroom. They sat down and started their business. All of a sudden this shocked look came over Hope's face and she about fell off the toilet turning around trying to look in the bowl to see if she was peeing. She apparently hadn't heard the other person come in, so she was a little confused as to what was going on. It was hilarious- the look on her face- she looked shocked, scared, confused, and concerned all at the same time. I laughed for a long time about that one.

You're not so good at being sneaky there, Hope

That little Hopey is funny. I suppose I'm thankful that she's not good at being sneaky. She's getting better at lying. She doesn't lie to me much, but there have been a few times when I'm not sure if she's telling the truth or not, and I have no way of checking.

But her sneakiness when she's trying to do something she knows she'll get in trouble for it cute. She is not allowed to jump on the couch, flip onto the couch, dive off the couch, etc. A few times lately she's told me "Don't watch this" or " Keep watching the tv" or "Keep reading your computer". Pretty good bet that she's going to do something on the couch she's not allowed to do.

Just now I set a cup of something I was eating on the couch. She casually wandered over to see if there was any left. There wasn't, so she asked if she could throw it away for me. Then as she's walking out of the room she says "Stay here and don't come in the family room". I don't care if she tries to scrape the sides of the cup or not, but I like that she at least warns me she's going to do something she thinks is disobedient. Makes my job a whole lot easier to have advanced notice.

How Pathetic Am I?!?

Remember Owen's old black sports car that sat in their driveway for years? Once, when I lived in Seattle, I saw one just like it. I was so homesick it made me miss Owen. Pretty bad, huh?

Today I was driving down the main street here on my way to the bank to open our accounts. As I was driving along, I saw a Value Village sign. And smiled. Over a stupid Value Village store. It made me feel like I was home again. And now I'm looking on ebay for raincoats for the Hopester and wondering what time Value Village opens tomorrow. Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic. The worst part is that I'm sad that I missed their Labor Day sale.

Do you think we have enough diapers??

Because this house doesn't have much storage space, my stockpile of daipers had to go in Naomi's closet. I think they take up about half the space in there. The five boxes of Huggies and Luvs are full of diapers too. And keep in mind that this is only my stockpile of size 4's; I have about 10 jumbo packs of 3's left too. My guesstimate of what sizes she'd need is a little off though. I thought I had plenty of size 3's, but Naomi doesn't have the tummy that Hope had, so the 3's are still plenty big on her. I bet she has another 6 months before I'll start to use up all these diapers in her closet.

On and On and On and On and On and On and On and .........

That's my opinion of I-90. It's like the Energizer Bunny; it keeps going and going............and going and going.

We spent Friday night at Amy's house. The plan was that David would come home from work, we'd get the cars loaded up, David would go to his goodbye dinner with all the people from work, and I'd go to Amy's. The reality was that David came home from work, we spent a long time trying to get the house finished up, David went to his party, I continued to pack, David came home from his party, we spent a lot more time cleaning up and getting the cars packed, and finally went to Amy's house about 10:30pm. Hope didn't get one more evening to play with McKenna, we didn't get any real time to spend with Amy and Andre before we left. We sat on the couch and talked for about an hour and then we all went to bed.

As expected, we didn't leave at 7am like I wanted to. Instead we left about 8:30. The Garmin had us going West on Highway 20 instead of going back to I-90. That actually was fine with me because, although it wasn't 70 (or 90) mph the whole way, it was a lot more interesting. We took that highway into Indiana, and then somewhere headed north to Minnesota. Somewhere near the western edge of Minnesota we finally got on I-90.

Last year when we drove to Rockford, we spend most of our second day driving through South Dakota. It's a long, boring state. This time, we got to South Dakota about 1pm, and drove all the stinkin' way across the state. At one point I was very close to falling asleep; in desperation I took a cue from all the stupid comedy movies where they slap themselves to stay awake, and was surprised to find it actually works! We got to Rapid City about 9:30 but had to find a gas station (since the Blazer stalled on the off ramp, it was so empty), a place to eat, our hotel (and of course they didn't have our reservation correct so I had to frantically call Bryn to get more info) so I don't think we got to our room until 10:30. Poor Naomi was so exhausted she couldn't get herself calmed down and the room was so tiny- there was no place to put her where she couldn't see us- so we got to listen to her cry for awhile; it took lots longer for her to go to sleep than usual.

Sunday was more of the same: long, boring drive. Both the girls were probably heartsick to get strapped back into those carseats for another thirteen-hour trip. Hope entertained herself watching movies on her DVD player, but Naomi doesn't like to watch tv, so she entertained herself by bugging Hope. Halfway through the day we put Hope in David's car since the sun was shining on her side of the car; at least the Blazer has tinted windows to make it a little better. Naomi also figured out how to sleep in the car, so she wasn't as crabby Sunday. The bad part of the trip was that we got to the twisty, curvy part of the freeway in Montana at nightfall. I dislike driving in the dark; I hate driving at high speeds on curvy roads. The combo was not fun for me. But we got through it safely. David and I bought two-way radios so we could talk to each other during the stretches of Wyoming and Montana that don't have cell reception; we talked to each other alot and kept each other awake. Actually, the curves kept me very awake. David's parents were nice enough to wait up till 11:30 when we finally pulled into their driveway. Both girls were asleep but figured it was time to wake up when we got out of the car; we had a tough time convincing Naomi she needed to go back to sleep instead of making faces at Nana. Finally we got to go to bed, in a familiar bed, with our own bedroom, separate from both girls, back in Washington.

To God Be The Glory

To God be the glory, great things He hath done.........Isn't it funny how you can not hear a song in years, and yet one phrase can bring it back completely. About an hour into our drive back to Washington, we passed this barn. I can't remember the last time I sang that hymn, but I know the girls are probably sick of hearing it now since I sang it from Freeport, Illinois to Minnesota or South Dakota. And it wasn't like I just remembered the chorus; oh no, I was belting out all three verses and could hear Duane Jorgens singing tenor behind me. I think about how most churches today do mainly worship choruses and wish they'd sing more hymns like this one. After singing them for twenty years, it's kind of nice to have a hymnal commited to memory so when a little phrase like this comes along, the rest of the hymn just flows right out.

WHAT'D YOU SAY???......or just very observant?

Hope listens to a VeggieTales CD every time she's in the car. One of her favorite songs is God is Bigger than the Boogieman. She was singing it on the way home from daycare with David today. She was singing the part about "there's a hundred tiny monsters jumping right into your jammies". David said she stopped for a minute and then said "How the hell are a hundred monsters going to get into your jammies?" After David confirmed that she had indeed said hell, he had a tough time not laughing as he explained that hell is a serious place and we don't say that word. He didn't control his laughter quite as well when he told me about it later:)

So Big

Last night Hopey crawled into bed with me in the middle of the night. We'd left the windows open because it was so nice outside, but she said her room was cold so she wanted to sleep with us. When she was little, I finally quit letting her sleep with us cause I was sick of getting kicked in the back the entire night. Last night when she was snuggled up against my back, her feet were in the crook of my knee. I can't believe she's gotten that big- we don't notice the growth day to day, but then you notice something like that and realize she's growing up.

You Have Been Good

Last year shortly before we moved, Scott Krippayne had a new song called You Have Been Good. I found myself singing it alot during the days while David was gone and I was getting packed, quitting my job, and preparing to leave Spokane. If I never got to move back to Spokane or Arizona or wherever else I wanted to live right then, God was still so good to me. He provided just what I needed just when I needed it.

I actually hadn't thought of the song for quite a while until it popped into my head again today. Since we started this whole moving-again thing, I knew it would be tought to sell our house here. I've just kept telling God it would be nice to at least have an offer on the house so we weren't just leaving with no idea when it would sell. Last week when someone wanted to see it, I thought maybe that was the answer to that specific prayer. At that point another song I hadn't thought of in years popped into my mind- Do I Trust You Lord. Yep, I do. I know that I can only see a part of the picture. So when they liked our house, but liked another better, I sang that song alot to remind my heart of what my head knew.

So, we had another couple who wanted to look at the house today. They've looked at 16 houses in the last two days and liked ours best. The only problem is their offer will be contingent on their house selling. We don't have the offer yet, so it may be a crummy offer, but that's not what I prayed about. I prayed for an offer on the house before we left. And that's what we got. You have been good. Mercy upon mercy, grace upon grace, time after time.

Hope the Ferocious Lion

Poor Hope- she's been pretending to be a lion lately. She holds out her fingers like claws, and snarls and roars at whomever happens to be nearby.

Well today Naomi was the recipient of the lion act. Unfortunately for Hope, Naomi thought it was funny. She'd laugh when Hope would roar, which made Hope mad. Then Hope would try to act more ferocious and mean, and Naomi would laugh harder, which made Hope even madder..............

Naomi's New Trick

If you think about it, dogs and kids are alot alike. Once they've been through obedience training and potty training, they're much more enjoyable to have around. They love to learn new tricks so you can fawn over how brilliant they are. And they respond very well to praise. And they seem to have selective hearing when you're telling them not to do something. Anyway........

While I was gone last weekend, David taught Naomi how to give kisses. Not that they're really kisses. She just leans towards you with a huge 'ole open mouth and aims in the general direction of your mouth or chin. But it is pretty sweet, if there's no food in her mouth, when she leans over to give you a kiss. Yesterday she even voluntarily kissed me and then laid her head on my shoulder when I got her out of her crib. For the world's most un-cuddly baby, that was pretty nice.

Secrets

One morning last week I was doing Hope's hair and asked her if she wanted to know a secret. She, of course, said yes. So I said, " I love you". She says, " I know, mom; I know all your secrets!"

These are my secrets that she says she knows:

1. I love you

2. I like you

3. You're a sweet girl
4. You're pretty

Yeah, she doesn't know all my secrets.

Summer School

Well, Hope and Naomi have officially completed their first week of daycare. Hope is in a PreK class, although I don't know that they're really doing much schooling since it's summer. Hope has had a few little attitude problems, but her teacher said today that she did really well- no pouting because someone didn't share with her or because she got scared. According to the teachers, she's entertaining everyone with her dancing and singing, and she seems to be re-enacting parts of Shawshank Redemption, only in reverse. Every day when she's out on the playground, she puts a handful of the rocks in her pocket to bring home. I don't know what her fascination is with rocks, but she acts like she's found wonderful little prizes out there and shows them to me thinking I'll be so thrilled. If she keeps it up, the playground is going to be rock-less.

Naomi is starting to adjust too. I don't think she's been taking naps, although today they told David she had her best day so far, and she took two naps. Even with her naps, she's been in bed every day when I've gotten home. Unfortunately even on days I get off work at five, I don't get home till around six. Since six is her normal bedtime, she's already snoozing when I get here. Tonight I woke her up so I could play with her for awhile, but she was crabby so I put her back to bed. I'm starting to re-think this working and daycare stuff, but it is nice to do something besides sit on this couch all day.

Happy Birthday Hope

Hope was so excited about her birthday! We didn't really do much; we were going to go to the Riverfront Park here, but there was something going on there. So we stayed around the house and Hope went out back and played most of the day. We told her we'd go wherever she wanted for dinner. Unfortunately she wanted McDonalds for dinner. After some persuading, we finally talked her into Red Robin. The promise of a ballloon and a free sundae helped a little. She loved having them sing to her and thanked the waitress several times for her balloons!


Here's a couple more pics from her birthday, and one of Naomi just cause she's cute!

Happy Mothers Day

Apparently Hope is a little confused about what this phrase means. I guess David had been prepping her to tell me that, cause she'd mentioned several times something about it was going to be Happy Mother's Day.

Sunday morning we were getting ready to go to the zoo and I was combing Hope's hair. She has turned into the biggest baby about having her hair brushed. If she can feel any tension at all, she starts crying and says it hurts. I was trying to tell her (ok, yelling at her) that just because she can feel it doesn't mean it hurts.

She turned around and said to me, "I thought today was supposed to be happy mothers day, not angry mothers day!"