My 13 year old daughter got her braces on 4 days ago, on Friday. They're so clear, on her top teeth, you can only see the metal wire going across her front teeth. It looks more like a retainer. But her bottom teeth have the traditional silver, metal bands. It's been miserable watching her in so much pain. We spent all weekend giving her ibuprofen. Her cheeks and jaws appeared to be a little swolen like a chipmunk.That's how sore she was. Even yesterday, Monday, she asked for more ibuprofen.
Friday, the 4 of us, my husband, me, our 13 year old daughter, and our 8 year old son, as well as our shephard mix dog, drove from St. Paul to Green Bay, a 5 hour drive for us, in our Saturn Sedan. We pack in to that thing like puzzle pieces. Earlier that day my co worker asked me about those vans with a dvd player in each headrest, so that each person in the car can watch their own dvd, with their own headset on the headrest of the person in front. I told her that someday, if I decide that we should all just never speak to each other as a family, ever again, then that's exactly what I'll get. I didn't mention the expense. My son tantrumed on our way out the door, because we can't find his Nintendo DS anywhere in the house, it's been lost for weeks. And because earlier that day my husband took him to Barnes and Nobels and they didn't have the guide book for Nintendo Game Cube Lego Star Wars II. We had to put it on back order.
We listened to Sirius radio, which was a gift from me to my husband Christmas 2005, and serves him well in the car and sometimes at his desk at work. We each took turns getting to choose the station for one hour. Our 8 year old son always picks "Kid Stuff," a channel that plays Barney and the Wiggles and unknown children's folk singers. Strangely, he won't listen to that kind of music at home, and objects to their tv shows, and says they're "for babies." But I guess in the car it's OK. I always pick "First Wave," which plays 80's new wave music. My husband often picks "Super Shuffle" which plays pop music from the last few decades, or sometimes a recent top 40 pop channel. Our 13 year old daughter had a hard time picking one, but was willing to listen to an 80's Hair Metal channel. My husband had bought her the new Linkin Park CD after getting her braces on, on Friday, so she was playing it in her portable CD player, with a headset.
I made the dog sit in front, and I squeezed in between both kids, back there, for 2 hours towards the end, with my work laptop, and we watched The Pink Panther with Steve Martin, on DVD, and just tried to turn it up as much as possible, so my husband could hear, while he was driving. I have night-blindness, so Paul does all the Green Bay driving. Plus his seat is permanently stuck too far back, so I can't drive his car without a big pillow supporting my back. And I wouldn't dare take my horrible 12 year old putt-putt car outside the metro area where it couldn’t be towed easily to the Saturn dealership near my house, as I have had to do so many times in the past.
We arrived at our in laws' at about 11 pm, and slept in their basement. We took this trip so we could see my husband's sister's 16 year old daughter's Catholic confirmation, but it wasn't until Sunday afternoon. So we spent most of Saturday just hanging around their house. My kids watched cartoons. I finally got to read about half of "The Idiot Girls Adventure Club" by Laurie Notaro. Someone on CafeMom.com recommended it to me. It started out slow, with me, because almost every essay was about getting drunk. But it just hooked me in with her descriptions of neighbor children who won't leave, evil dentists, careless gynocologists, and her high school reunion. Now I have to read her other books. That night the 4 of us and our mother in law went to see Shrek III. I thought it was as good as the other two, but not everyone agreed with me. And we went to McDonalds. My mother in law wanted to take the kids to McDonalds, so I didn't mention that's pretty much what we had all the way there the day before, and would be having all the way back the next day. And my daughter could still barely eat anything they had, because her teeth still hurt so badly.
Sunday we had a brunch at Paul's sister's African-themed house, and saw not only her 16 year old, being confirmed later that day, but also her new born son, for the first time. My husband's sister and her new husband asked my husband to be the baby's godfather…and the baby's godmother will be its own 16 year old sister! My sister in law had her two children 16 years apart! At church there were 46 members of my niece's high school class all getting confirmed. My husband's uncle is a deacon in the church,and he told me later that about 50% of her class opted out, so these were the only ones who agreed to get confirmed. I was glad to hear that, because that tells me that they're allowed to think about it and that my neice must have been allowed to put some thought in to it and decide that's what she wanted. But geez, the announcer was a Bishop in their church, and he must have spoken for over an hour, and then each of the 46 kids had to stand and ask to be allowed to be confirmed, and then each kid had to approach him with their "sponsor", in her case this was my husband's brother, her godfather. And then everyone had to sing some more and this packed house all had to go get communion. This meeting was two and a half hours! I'm not kidding. Our son was squirming like an octopus by the end, and I was single handedly wrestling him down from trying to reach over me and poke his sister, and kick her and put his head on her. I knew in advance that bringing a stuffed toy wasn't going to keep him entirely occupied, but nothing could have prepared us for that 2 1/2 hour church meeting.
We drove back in the dark and listened to the radio. We arrived home at about 10 pm.
Friday, the 4 of us, my husband, me, our 13 year old daughter, and our 8 year old son, as well as our shephard mix dog, drove from St. Paul to Green Bay, a 5 hour drive for us, in our Saturn Sedan. We pack in to that thing like puzzle pieces. Earlier that day my co worker asked me about those vans with a dvd player in each headrest, so that each person in the car can watch their own dvd, with their own headset on the headrest of the person in front. I told her that someday, if I decide that we should all just never speak to each other as a family, ever again, then that's exactly what I'll get. I didn't mention the expense. My son tantrumed on our way out the door, because we can't find his Nintendo DS anywhere in the house, it's been lost for weeks. And because earlier that day my husband took him to Barnes and Nobels and they didn't have the guide book for Nintendo Game Cube Lego Star Wars II. We had to put it on back order.
We listened to Sirius radio, which was a gift from me to my husband Christmas 2005, and serves him well in the car and sometimes at his desk at work. We each took turns getting to choose the station for one hour. Our 8 year old son always picks "Kid Stuff," a channel that plays Barney and the Wiggles and unknown children's folk singers. Strangely, he won't listen to that kind of music at home, and objects to their tv shows, and says they're "for babies." But I guess in the car it's OK. I always pick "First Wave," which plays 80's new wave music. My husband often picks "Super Shuffle" which plays pop music from the last few decades, or sometimes a recent top 40 pop channel. Our 13 year old daughter had a hard time picking one, but was willing to listen to an 80's Hair Metal channel. My husband had bought her the new Linkin Park CD after getting her braces on, on Friday, so she was playing it in her portable CD player, with a headset.
I made the dog sit in front, and I squeezed in between both kids, back there, for 2 hours towards the end, with my work laptop, and we watched The Pink Panther with Steve Martin, on DVD, and just tried to turn it up as much as possible, so my husband could hear, while he was driving. I have night-blindness, so Paul does all the Green Bay driving. Plus his seat is permanently stuck too far back, so I can't drive his car without a big pillow supporting my back. And I wouldn't dare take my horrible 12 year old putt-putt car outside the metro area where it couldn’t be towed easily to the Saturn dealership near my house, as I have had to do so many times in the past.
We arrived at our in laws' at about 11 pm, and slept in their basement. We took this trip so we could see my husband's sister's 16 year old daughter's Catholic confirmation, but it wasn't until Sunday afternoon. So we spent most of Saturday just hanging around their house. My kids watched cartoons. I finally got to read about half of "The Idiot Girls Adventure Club" by Laurie Notaro. Someone on CafeMom.com recommended it to me. It started out slow, with me, because almost every essay was about getting drunk. But it just hooked me in with her descriptions of neighbor children who won't leave, evil dentists, careless gynocologists, and her high school reunion. Now I have to read her other books. That night the 4 of us and our mother in law went to see Shrek III. I thought it was as good as the other two, but not everyone agreed with me. And we went to McDonalds. My mother in law wanted to take the kids to McDonalds, so I didn't mention that's pretty much what we had all the way there the day before, and would be having all the way back the next day. And my daughter could still barely eat anything they had, because her teeth still hurt so badly.
Sunday we had a brunch at Paul's sister's African-themed house, and saw not only her 16 year old, being confirmed later that day, but also her new born son, for the first time. My husband's sister and her new husband asked my husband to be the baby's godfather…and the baby's godmother will be its own 16 year old sister! My sister in law had her two children 16 years apart! At church there were 46 members of my niece's high school class all getting confirmed. My husband's uncle is a deacon in the church,and he told me later that about 50% of her class opted out, so these were the only ones who agreed to get confirmed. I was glad to hear that, because that tells me that they're allowed to think about it and that my neice must have been allowed to put some thought in to it and decide that's what she wanted. But geez, the announcer was a Bishop in their church, and he must have spoken for over an hour, and then each of the 46 kids had to stand and ask to be allowed to be confirmed, and then each kid had to approach him with their "sponsor", in her case this was my husband's brother, her godfather. And then everyone had to sing some more and this packed house all had to go get communion. This meeting was two and a half hours! I'm not kidding. Our son was squirming like an octopus by the end, and I was single handedly wrestling him down from trying to reach over me and poke his sister, and kick her and put his head on her. I knew in advance that bringing a stuffed toy wasn't going to keep him entirely occupied, but nothing could have prepared us for that 2 1/2 hour church meeting.
We drove back in the dark and listened to the radio. We arrived home at about 10 pm.
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