Memorial Day Weekend

A chip off the old _ _ _ _ _.

T-O-O-T-H.

Front tooth.  Permanent Front tooth. Oh the joys of raising boys.

So here's a time line of the event with photographic evidence.

1:30 p.m. (receive incoming call from high school)

Me: Hello?

Elder Son:  Um, hey, mom, you need to come check me out.

Me: Why? Is something wrong? Are you sick? Did you get in trouble?

Elder Son: I broke my tooth.  My front tooth. And you need to come check me out.

Me:  What do you mean you broke your tooth? How in the world did you break your tooth? Does it hurt?

Elder Son:  (lets out a deep breath) Can you just come check me out, they said you need to come check me out.

Me:  Sure I can come check you out.  Were you playing basketball at PE or something and that's how it broke?

Elder Son:  I chipped it in English Class.

Me:  In English Class?  What in the world were you doing in English class that might chip a tooth?

Elder Son: we were playing this game called "pitch" and I sit up front and anyway I hit it on my desk. And when it hit the desk, it hit the slanted angle side and I felt it bend and then I saw two white chips of my tooth laying there.

Me: Oh my, you were horseplaying right? What do we do in English class? Do we horseplay in any classroom?  Oh my, Elder Son, that's a permanent tooth, your FRONT tooth.  I'll be there in a few minutes.

Click.  Thinking to myself....(how strange...chipping your front tooth in English Class...the very same classroom I sat in for English back in the day, except you can rest assured I did not horseplay in Mrs. Renfroe's room...ever.)

2:00 p.m. -- I arrive at school to find Elder Son waiting in the chairs at the front office. With a chipped, front, permanent tooth.  And some chapped lips that seemed to be screaming for carmex. :)

2:30 p.m. -- We call our dentist, Dr. L. He says come on down and we'll see how much money he can make off of us to help pay for a new boat damage is done. 

4:00 p.m. -- Dr. L suggests we just do a filling type fix for now, as Elder Son's maxillary bone (like all his other bones) is still growing.  If we were to do a more expensive extensive, permanent procedure (root canal with crown) it would just have to be repeated 3 or 4 more times before he turns 18 years old.  Hello Bank Loan.

After checking the x-rays, he says it looks as though the nerve is okay and proceeds to go forth with plan A....a less expensive, but "this is my firstborn, he can't have a chipped up smile" mother approved treatment by filling in the tooth in question.

And it took all of 18 minutes.....voila'.....restored tooth, pretty smile, happy mama.  (sorry for the blurry photo it was taken with my phone).

Dr. L reminded Elder Son on SEVERAL occassions during the course of treatment that this filling is not a permanent fix.  In fact, it is rather delicate and he must be careful with it.  No eating hard candy with his front teeth, as a peppermint would break it if he bit into it. No using his teeth to tear open a potato chip bag, no cutting fishing line with his teeth, etc.etc.etc.

And after each mini-lecture, he would stop working and turn to me and say, "but mom, if it does happen, don't fuss at him because this is really easy to break, and it's no big deal, just bring him back down here and we'll paint it back on again."

In my mind, I'm thinking....don't fuss at him. Don't fuss at him.  Now, I'm getting parenting sessions thrown in for free with the dental work. Nice.

4:30 p.m. -- Dr. L also mentioned that the big thing to worry about now is just to wait and see if the tooth turns black and is dead, or if Elder Son begins to have any pain with it, as either of these would be reason for us to come back down immediately to let him be seen by an endodontist for further work. Endodontist is just a fancy name for someone who wants you to pay for their beach condo.

Bedtime thru 7:30 a.m. following morning -- So we wait.  We make it through the night fine.  Elder Son wakes up the next morning, still no pain. He goes about his day at school.

3:00 p.m. -- I pick him up as usual at the end of the school day. 

(Can I just stop right here and remind the reader that it has been less than 24 hours since he had his tooth fixed)

He hops in the passenger side and smiles at me.  I smile back. He says "it's really hard to remember not to do stuff because that tooth is so easy to break".....I say "yea, I guess it will take some getting used to....awwwww, Elder Son....you broke it today didn't you?"  I immediately notice his tooth is no longer all nice and fixed like Dr. L managed to make it the previous afternoon. 

He then proceeds to tell me that he was playing basketball and a friend, who is a girl, accidentally hit him in the mouth when going for the ball.  It chipped a little corner off the filling.

Nothing like the big chunk he knocked off during the reading of Hamlet, but still. Seriousy, I know y'all probably can't even see it from the photo, but I promise it's chipped again.

And guess what?  It's going to stay that way.  At least for a while. Oh, I didn't fuss.  I may have told him he'd have to save his lawn mowing money this summer to pay for a new tooth to start 9th grade with in August, but I didn't fuss.

And if it breaks off even worse, maybe I'll just forego the dental visits all together and instead get him a hat that says "Git-R-Done"..... 

Awards day & dart throwing--who knew they were related?

And so, we've almost arrived at the end of another school year and it's time for me to document the children's achievements as awarded by the school. 

You know, it's a post to look back on in a few years and remind myself how cute, responsible and smart they each were.....before they go off to college and try harder to shoot a good game of darts at The Strutting Duck on Thursday night instead of studying for a physics test.  Not that I know ANYTHING about that sort of lifestyle.  But I hear it happens.

Elder Son:

  A-B Honor Roll

Science Assessment

ARMT (Alabama Reading and Math)

Good Citizenship

Middle Child:

A-B Honor Roll

Presidential Academic Excellence

Baby Girl:

All A Honor Roll

Highest Academic Average - Language

Highest Academic Average - Reading

Highest Academic Average - Social Studies

Highest Academic Average - Math

Presidential Fitness Award (only girl to receive it this year)

Most Outstanding Student

I'm going to go out on a limb and say someone in the family may be a bit of an over achiever and some others may not apply themselves quite as much as they could.  

 Which may lead me to beleive that one day they will have a dart board in their apartment on campus to practice up for Thursday nights. 

***Daddy and I are very proud of all 3 of you!!! And just to make him feel good, we'll use our clever imaginations and act as though you get your academic excellence from his half of the DNA.  :)

"Cake Boss" came for Easter.

Yes, I realize, once again, that I am late posting. There are so many posts clogging up the backdate on this blog it's pitiful.  But maybe, one day, it will all arrive on the blog, not necessarily in the proper time line, but still they shall be documented on House of Bowling!

So, back at Easter, my crafty sister came in with a sweet weekend project for all the cousins.  Making Fondant Cakes. 

Of course, there was a small competition because in our family you can't boil an egg without claiming a winner.  The two youngest cousins, Baby Girl included, decorated the following cake, which had yellow cake inside of it with a YUMMY butterfinger filling.

And then, two of the middle aged cousins, The Middle Child included, decorated this strawberry cake with fresh picked strawberries and cool whip filling.

The Middle Child showed his inner pastry skills by molding this incredible rose.

Pretty good, eh? Especially for his first time.

I know, I know. Can you believe it? They did a fantastic job. Apparently t.v. isn't all bad, it seems that watching Food Network is like osmosis. Who knew?

Great job Cousins! You ROCK and so did your cakes!!!!

Presidential Wit--Good Ol' Ronnie

Ronald Reagan:

While introducing Bob Hope at a banquet... "He loves to entertain the troops and he loves golf.  Just the other day he asked me, 'What's your handicap?' and I said, 'Congress.'"



Good Ol' Ronnie....now HE was a President.

Who knows where this achievement in life will take them? great places, I'm sure.

Yep, the dynamic duo of Middle Boy and his friend Big E, won the piggyback race again this year during their field day competitions. 

As I mentioned their grand acheivement to a fellow friend and teacher at their school, wise in her years, as she was congratulating them she said, "well, look at them, I don't think it was really that hard for those two"....and who am I to say differently, my child just holds on as tight as he can for the 8 second ride of his life.  But Big E stepped right in and said, "yes mam, but that was a total of 300 lbs. I just brought across the finish line."

Middle Boy is kind of heavy.  

Complete Dominance from Kindergarten through 6th grade. 

Undefeated.

Big E said he thinks we should get them shirts to honor the occasion. Maybe he's right. It's not every day someone makes history. :)

Yes, yes, I realize I forgot to post the H3 verse....

 it's been a crazy few days, but here it is now.

And to be honest, I'm going to make it short and sweet for this month's introduction to the verse.  

On Wednesday, April 27, 2011, my home state of Alabama experienced catastrophic destruction from a mass of storms that produced multiple, gravely large tornados.  Tornados that brought numerous death, hundreds and hundreds of lives were lost across the southeast, and also destroyed complete towns, communities, sections of cities.   I'm sure no matter where you live you probably at least saw some national coverage of the damage.

It's much worse in person. I've never seen anything like it in my lifetime. I've never experienced anything like it in my lifetime. And I must say, the outpouting of love from the body of Christ in the aftermath.....well, I've never experienced that either.  And when I say the aftermath, I mean mere minutes after the tornados hit and even now, almost two weeks later. 

To see pure and absolute devastation is heartwrenching, and it does seem eerily similiar to 9-11 and days afterward, sure, the somberness is hanging, looming overhead......but to see rising from the rubble the awe inspiring care being sought out from fellow Americans to their neighbors in need brings just pure and absolute pride and amazement.

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." 

 ~Romans 8:18

Folks are suffering in this present day, it's true. Not just from the ravages caused by the tornado. But in the after shock as well.

Folks are suffering in this present day, it's true. And the fact is simple, it may not have been caused by a tornado of any magnitude. At least not the variety that can be picked up on radar by their local meteorologist. 

I'm going to leave you with some thoughts I recently read in a devotion written by Luci Swindoll:

"But all the difficulties that invade our peace are woven together by the loving hand of God to be fashioned into something good. Every detail is important to our Father. He knows our condition, our framework, and our areas of vulnerability and will never ask of us more than we can bear. Therefore we can be sure that, as His purpose unfolds hour by hour in our lives, He won't make a mistake."

My thoughts and prayers go out to all of those people who have lost loved ones , lost their homes, their businesses, their towns that were completely wiped out....

Presidential Wit

 Over Calvin Coolidge's mantel in his home was the following saying:

A wise old owl sat on an oak,
The more he saw, the less he spoke;
The less he spoke, the more he heard,
Why can't we be more like that old bird?

**This quote reminds me of my Daddy so much. He doesn't say a lot but his wisdom and often his silence, speaks loud and clear.