Out with the Old

It's that magical time of Shnookie 2's life when she's preparing for braces. Unfortunately, she inherits my "gotta hold onto these teeth" DNA and has lost only 5 baby teeth on her own. She'd already had a bunch pulled over the years as it became necessary. I think the dentist was trying to show her uptight mouth that 'see, it's not the end of the world to give up a few.' But, alas, message not received, because we had to make another trip to chair this week.

The orthodontist had sent instructions to our dentist to pull 4 teeth. The dentist took one look in her mouth and said "Oh, no, it's gonna be way more than 4, I'll tell you that right now." Shnookie 2's eyes pop out of her head. Then he starts counting "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9...." I have to admit, the mother bear in me was shocked, and I had to question the dentist on this matter. I mean, really--can you just DO that? Start yanking out unauthorized teeth? Is this the wild west? I felt a little panicked, like I should call the orthodontist or my congressman, or SOMEOME. What kept me in my seat was the fact that I trust this man, he's actually a friend of ours, and he's done excellent work on us in the past. He assured me that most of them were just hanging by a thread anyway.

It only took 20 minutes--a messy, unnervingly noisy 20 minutes--and they were all out. They gave her laughing gas (have to admit, I was little jealous of that point), but she was still quite tense, so I stayed with her. Rubbed her feet mostly, which was probably only annoying, but all the rest of her was rather unaccessible. A mom's gotta do something. It's hard to just sit there and see the water streaming silently out of the outer edges of her eyes.

It reminds me of the time when she was only 5 months old, and they had to stick a thingy down through her tear duct to puncture a hole into her nose. (It was clogged and she was getting eye infections) About killed me. At least this time they didn't make me hold her down. ~cringe~

One of the incredible things about Shnookie2 is that she's such a trooper and doesn't complain EVER. So when stuff like this happens, I have to remind myself that things are probably at least twice as bad as what she's saying. It's been a week, and she's still in constant search of soft foods that sustain life.

Before I got braces, I had to have 10 teeth pulled, although they did it in 2 visits. But the time I had the 6 pulled at once, I was pretty miserable. I probably remember it more than is natural, but that's me. And I REALLY remember how on the way home from getting all those teeth yanked, my mom just had to stop by the library to get something, and I had to go in with her. Truly awful. I was so numb that I couldn't tell I was drooling. Not my proudest teen moment. So all the way home with Shnookie 2, I'm telling her "I will NOT take you to the library now." I'm not sure how that translated through her drug-induced haze, but it made me feel like mother of the year.

Creations

And now for your viewing pleasure (or torture, depending on how you feel about gorgeous scrapbook pages featuring adorable children, ahem), my most recent layouts:

Journaling: Starting very young, Shnookie4 showed she wasn’t afraid to get in there and mix it up on the soccer field. Because of that, Dad started calling her “tenacious!” Now that she’s 7 and on her own team, she’s earning that title more than ever!

Please note: I KNOW that tenacious is spelled wrong on this picture. When I first showed it to Hubby using the big "look what I did, aren't I a wonder, and you'd better goosh all over it" flourish, he got this instant panicked look, tried to recover, and said it was lovely. Not one to miss such subtleties, I was all: "What, what?? What don't you like?" Poor guy. He had to break it to the English snob that she'd spelled a word wrong in BIG BRIGHT RED letters and posted it on the world wide web. I'm sure he was heartbroken. Soooo...I have corrected it on the original full-resolution original, but I'm just too lazy to change it on this copy. I know...I'm a disgrace to English snobs everywhere.

Next...(I promise, they don't all have such lengthy albeit charming stories behind them.)

My niece, Alaina Despain, took and filtered this amazing photo herself and graciously gave me permission to scrap it. It's of my oldest nephew, Todd, and his son, Quinton, at our family reunion this summer. Doesn't it just give you chills?? Especially the way I scrapped it?? Bwahahaha!!!


These are our friends, Shannon and K.C. VanHorne. We went to the town concert this year together, and they stood there and danced in the middle of the crowd. It was so sweet!!

The kit I used on that page is by Sausan Designs. Now, I am not much of a designer stalker--I'm really too cheap to spend what it takes--but I am quite taken with Sylvie's work. I find that once I buy something of hers, I use it over and over and over. Almost every page I've done in the last 6 months has something of hers. And can you believe this woman comments on every layout in the galleries that uses something of hers? Either that, or she's stalking ME (yeah, right), cuz she never fails to compliment my work with her stuff. I surely admire that in a designer.


This is using the picture I showed you before of my kids and friends playing in the rain. Good times.

And finally...

I took the girls up the canyon last week, and the leaves were drop-dead gorgeous. They knew we'd be doing some photos, so Shnookie4 grabbed her new hat. We got her hair cut in a reverse bob, and it's so stinkin' cute!! Then, you add this hat, and she's so chic I could just gobble her up!!

New clock

Lookie what I did! And it's about time! BWAHAHAHA!! We got this great clock from Target where you can put in your own pictures. We were looking for a contemporary nickel-finish clock-- to go along with our new modern living room--and when we saw this, I wasn't sold at first. But then I started thinking of the theme possibilities, and I just had to have it! The idea is to change it once-in-awhile--ya know, for holidays or special celebrations, or when I get the urge for change but can't drag my sorry butt up a ladder to paint. This first edition is in tribute to the new family room: each circle is a picture of something in the room, in the multiple of the hour it represents. Get it??? So, for 3:00, there's the 3 bamboo sticks that lean up against the shelves. I am so clever I can hardly stand it sometimes! :)

Here's the run-down for each hour:
1- Pear canvas that hangs over the fireplace
2- Vases on the mantle
3- Bamboo
4- Pictures of the kids that sit on the shelves
5- Little plants scattered about
6- Strings of beads from the uplight thingy
7- Blue candles, which technically aren't in the room, but could be
8- Nickel-finish handles on the stacked 8-drawer thingy I refinished
9- Appetizer plates, which also aren't in the room
10- Shoes, because we keep the shoe basket in there
11- CD's
12- White chocolate chips with our new rug as a background (ya gotta get pretty creative when you get up in the double digit numbers!)

On the Market

Yup, it has happened. Shnookie 1 (let's just call him Corbin for this post. Ya know, since I'm too lazy to edit the photo. ((Totally cracking myself up))) has turned 16. And besides being able to get his license to drive, it also makes him eligible for a license to date. Wa-hoo!

I had this flash of inspiration--20 minutes before he was to arrive home from school--that I should put a sign on the garage that would embarrass him. So I whipped it up on the computer, chuckling all the while, and got it slapped up there, JUST as he and his friend walked up to the house. Was he embarrassed? Does he LOOK embarrassed? lol (He's the one on the right, btw.) Actually, he responded how I'd hoped and seemed quite tickled (although he wouldn't be too tickled by my use of the word 'tickled,' teehee). My son is a guy who doesn't take himself too seriously, and that might be my favorite thing about him. Although it's hard to choose, cuz he is one amazing kid. And I'm not just saying that as his mother; it has been scientifically proven by 4 out of 5 dentists. Or something like that. And thus begins my shameless bragging about my oldest... (hey, once a year, I'm entitled, right?)

I often tell Hubby that Corbin is the person I wish I was at his age. He has tons of friends, from all different walks of life, and he has them for all the right reasons--because he's kind and unassuming, and people are just drawn to him. He really takes pleasure in knowing people and intereacting with them, but doesn't need to be the center of attention. In fact, adults who come to visit call him shy (which his friends think is hilarious), but it's not really the right word. I don't know what the right word is, lol, but he's got some Grandpa Williams in him, and he's just not one to showboat. (Unless if it's just us, and he's talking about his sweet b-ball or skating skills. Then it's downright obscene how that kid brags! :))

Corbin has a great sense of who he is and is pretty darn secure with that person. I love the crazy streak in him that prompts him to wear my knee-hi pink fuzzy toe-socks on the basketball court. I swear that kid could make anything look cool. It's all an extension of his sense of humor, which is razor-sharp. It could make him world-famous, but never will because of the afore-mentioned absence of showboating. Fine with me!

Have I mentioned that he's happy? Teenager AND happy, you ask?? Mind-boggling. Starting as just a tiny lad, he had a very infectious smile and playful spirit. I look at him now and can't figure out where he's hiding that pudgy little fellow...until he smiles. I live for that smile! I swear I'd do anything for it. Luckily, I don't have to do much to see it, cuz he's a pretty cheerful guy. We were talking as a family once about how to handle anger, and he shared his pointers. Hubby and I were all "What? You get angry? Did we miss that millisecond?"

I'm gonna have to save the rest of the brag list for next year, cuz I could go on forever! I haven't even gotten to how he gets good grades, works hard at his sports, does the dishes and chores without being asked, is a great big brother, and single-handedly feeds and clothes a 3rd-world country every month. (Okay, maybe just a 2nd-world country.) I do, however, want to mention how I admire his spiritual side. Sometimes Hubby and I wonder about how his 'soul' is doing--but only because that whole "non-showboating, laid-back, don't say an extra word if you can avoid it" thing keeps him from blaring his feelings to us. Then we'll find out, totally by accident, of something extra-ordinary that he's done that shows us how solid he is. Happens all.the.time. He has great values, is willing and ready to stick up for them, and somehow manages to inspire others to live their own truths. All of that without hardly ever speaking. Truly amazing. I feel so blessed to have him in my life. I just hope--as impossible as it seems--that there are 3 more like him out there, somewhere, for his sisters to marry.
I love you, Corb-a-lulu-man!