I now OFFICIALLY have a metal mouth!

The day finally came to have Allison's braces put on. She had been excited, up until we got up today. Now, all of a sudden, it wasn't so exciting. I think between her friends telling her how bad it was going to be it really made her psych herself out. She gets so worked up at MD offices but in the end she comes out fine. So I wish she would R-E-L-A-X!

She had to have impressions done first. I did tell her about how they were done and what it felt like. She, again, was so worked up that it took alot of coaching to get it done. She, still, at this point isn't talking to anyone! So the impressions are complete, and she gets a quick, good brushing.. and then off to braces. She still is so upset and isn't talking. They had put an expander in to make sure her jaws stayed off her teeth so they stayed dry. It was a quick procedure and even though they had alloted 2 hours for this appointment we were in and out in about 60 minutes! WOW! Another reason why I love Dr. Vinson! So happy we found him.

Here is my big girl with a metal mouth! She will proabably get her bottom's on later this year. They are still hoping she loses 2 top teeth, if not we will have to have them pulled this fall. She also has 2 teeth on the bottom that need to come out too but they are coming in perfectly aligned. Her bottom teeth just need some tweaking but more work needs to be done on the top!

Of course, after she saw them while she was rinsing, now, finally Allison was back. She was herself. And happy! Her face, showed it all. She realized that it wasn't anything like what her friends had said and that she wasn't going to die from getting her braces on.

Candi, surprised her and brought her a cupcake with a candle because her birthday was 4 days ago. Even though she doesn't like chocolate it was a pretty cupcake and it added to the special-ness of the day! Again, another reason why I love Dr. Vinson!

Dr. Vinson at the finishing part. Everything is great and next appt....10 weeks!

Now off to the Clayton Post Office for the girls to turn in their passport applications! What an exciting day!

Didn't know Father of the Year awards were up for nomination again...

Rewind, 9 months ago (which for you slow people that would be September 2008). Allison had her 1st appointment with Dr. Vinson's office. After the consultation appointment and pictures, x-rays and a lengthy discussion a plan of care was laid out. Follow up in 6 months. So in January 2009 we went for our follow up appointment. Dr. Vinson didn't think that she was quite ready so again, follow up in 3 months. Dr. Vinson wanted to see some of the four remaining baby teeth out.

I had called Rod after the appointment 9 months ago to let him know what the status was and probably within a year Allison would need to have her orthodontic work started. We had discussed this years ago, knowing that both kids would probably need braces. He never said anything.

After her many follow up appointments and the last one last week, we have finally come to a start date, June 24,2009. So we left the appointment I called Rod and told him she was getting her braces on June 24, 2009, which was going to be 3 weeks. Nothing was said.

Funny thing, I told Chris that I had a conversation with Rod and that nothing was said. I also told Chris that he would wait and 'catch an attitude' about a week out. So I waited until about a week before her appointment and called him. The actual call was, I think, on Monday, June 15 because some of my mom's cookie dough was missing and I wanted to make sure I hadn't put it in his stack when he picked his up and then I also left a message about the braces. I wasn't sure if he wanted me to add it to the child support and I pay the entire payment every month or if he wanted them to draft it directly or take it off the balance of $3K I still owe him from equity in the house. Needless to say the return call I got wasn't good. I was happy that he was calling me back over the cookie dough (at least thats what I thought), until I answered the phone. I then got a 15 minutes lecture, very loudly, about how he was sure I could 'come up with words to make braces an above and beyond expense'. After I told him we both discussed this 5 years ago. He then tells me how he is going to make $20K less this year and I am working 2 jobs. I then tell him that this is his daughters mouth. He didn't seem to care. I told him his daughter was getting braces, the $5600 would be paid whether or not he helped. I then proceeded to tell him that he had 2 cars, a boat with a trailer, 2 motorcycles and a 14ft enclosed trailer. Soon after I ended up hanging up the phone.

Approximately 3 minutes later I receive a text stating that my car was worth more than all of his toys combined. I didn't respond. What I wanted to say was 'but Im not the one complaining about money'. Im not going to go into the fact that the VW had 220K miles, was bought 6 months after Allison was born, the kids were bigger, AND I can afford it. Which all has nothing to do with helping out with his half of the braces. I even gave him the half AFTER MY insurance paid their portion.

I have gone over 2 years now since he moved in with Christine, dealing with his comments, his sarcasm, his inappropriate comments, his questioning the girls, etc. Aside from calling her a not-so-nice- name before he left, I have not once said ONE WORD about her, never questioned the kids, never once spoke ill to the kids about Rod. NOT ONCE. Yet I put up with the Chris comments, the Patsy comments, the Kim comments, the 'have you and Chris set a date yet', 'when are you selling the house, I figured you and Chris would be living together soon', the 'im not sure what you say to the kids about me', the arguing over birthday presents, AFTER I sent him an email over a month prior to her birthday. Arguing over a docking station. I asked him to get her a nice piece of jewelry for her 13th. Something special. No, he never said he was getting her a docking station until AFTER her birthday party. Then after he picks up the girls to head to Greensboro, Allison texts me and tells me 'daddy is asking me who got me the iHome'. I then immediately text Rod and tell him not to 50 question Allison. For which his response was 'asking her who got it for her is a harmless question that I wouldn't have had to ask if you would have told me who got it when I asked you-you specifically suggested that I get the iHome for her'. I didn't specifically state for him to get it for her, I told my family and Chris, Patsy, everyone what she wanted. Mainly because I did SPECIFICALLY ask him to get her a nice piece of jewelry.


I responded 'AND u never said 'ok Ill get her that' what does it matter? It doesn't, thats why there shouldn't even be a question' His response 'Anything you say. Thanks for the help in helping me get her something she would like, somethinig tells me you gave better gift giving advice to Chris, Patsy and Kim". Actually NO I gave the best advice to her father, YOU! And make a comment about 'thanks for helping me out'. You are an adult, you asked and I answered. Now, because what you want to get her has already be gotten, I am to blame? How does that make sense? Im sure I could add alot more. Hoping that one day he would finally move on and quit being so bitter. He chose his path. So many times I heard him say to me how 'perfect' she was and how his relationship with her was 'perfect'. So then why have conversations like you do with me? His mom told me once, he either says them to hurt me or it makes him feel good. Wonder which one it is? His daughter who responds to me ''its just he asks me a lot of questions and i get nervous, and then idk what to say" (on the way to Greensboro after the questions about the iHome) What do you say to a 13 year old who can not communicate with her father? Who has to feel nervous around her own father in fear of what he will say or how many more questions is he going to ask?

So again, I am assuming he is running for Father of the Year! So again folks, remind him what a prestigious honor it is, embrace him, shake his hand, and make sure to tell him to hold his head high, he sure has a lot to be proud of!

Anyone for a round of fun?

WOW! What a crew, huh? The kids wanted to play Putt-Putt so I had gotten together with Kim and we took all the kids to play. We had a blast. Patsy and Kennedy showed up too. So wow, it was a great round of putt-putt. No balls were lost, none went flying onto Capital Blvd, and no one swallowed one...so I would say we had a great game!

After putt-putt we headed in to play. The kids went crazy. Its amazing how fast they can go through tokens. The girls seemed to take more time in their plan of attack. ha ha.

The girls ROCKED Guitar Hero! It was crazy watching them. I told Chris we need an arcade room with a HUGE Guitar Hero game.

Im not sure who was having more fun here, Lauren or Kim... Im leaning toward Kim...I think her mouth is bigger! So you see, even the adults had some fun!

Lauren & Kim had so much fun that Brianna & Allison had to try. And they too had a blast! Too bad they don't act like this on real rollercoasters!

I think Lauren blew her tokens quick too. But always time for a picture with Mommy!

My favorite niece Brianna! I sure do wish that she lived here. We would be able to have so much fun all the time! I love having them every year. We always seem to have a ton of fun and it never seems long enough!

100 note streak with 96% total accuracy on Guitar Hero "Rock You Like a Hurricane". I think Allison needs to start her own band! ha ha We ended up spending about an hour letting the kids blow through tokens. We then headed down Capital Blvd to Steak N Shake.. Yummy!

Little did Parker and Brianna know that Pam was coming. She had been texting me her status during our round of Putt-Putt and I knew she would be there by the time we were at Steak N Shake. I kept the kids busy while we waited on Drew to show up after he got off work.

Parker and his favorite Aunt. Of course, its me! Trying to pick from the menu is hard work.

Then of course, we all had to put on the hats, well at least we made the kids! Kennedy just looked fabulous!

"Can I take your order please'?" I think he is ready for a job! Now mind you this is after Pam showed up at the door, Brianna who was facing the door looked up, Parker turned around and immediately said 'why is she here'. And then the very next thing is 'when is she leaving'. A few minutes later Pam runs to the car to get her camera with Parker. Parker comes back in crying saying 'we have to leave tomorrow'. I hate that. We sure do have a lot of fun and I love spending time with them!

Thanks Parker for keeping the 'tongue' thing going. Its nice to know its carried over in your house too!

More adventures-Day 3

Since the beach was out, my back up plan was Tucker Lake, but, again, the rain kept that away. The girls finished up their vases this morning and we headed out to the bowling alley. Shoes were fitted and balls were found......off to our lane...number 21!

Lauren seemed to get an attitude after 2 frames and I sent her to the car. As you can see by the above scorecard...she had gutter balls in the 1st 2 frames. But we were there to have fun...not to worry about gutter balls, who was winning or losing..just fun!

Parker had a blast. He bowls left but is a lefty... who knows.. I guess thats Parker. He didn't care what his score was and we didn't play with bumpers.

Allison had a little attitude here and there but all in all it was a good day and fun! You can tell she is a teenager and an increase in hormone fluctuation.

We ended up playing 2 games and headed out to Logans to eat a late lunch afterward. Lauren ended up checking her attitude at the door and played the 2nd game.

Those sexy shoes. No one wanted a pair to wear to school. Not sure why...they have a cool blue on them....

The Excellent Adventure - Day 2

I had planned on heading to the beach for a couple of days, but awakening around 0400 to the sound of a downpour kind of dampened my plans. I had seen this cute craft projects, I thought the girls would like so we headed out to shop and run some errands in the rain. The girls picked out different colored bags of marbles and a vase and hot glued them on in a random pattern. Each was completely unique. Allison & Lauren both burned a finger, but only once. The end of that glue gun is rather hot!

And of course, whats crafting without food? That is chips that Lauren in eating and NOT the marbles. ha ha. We actually ran out of a color that Brianna needed so we ended up running back to Michael's for more!

After Chris got off work, the kids wanted to hit Char-grill for dinner and then we were headed to Patsy's to dig up bamboo stalks! We all got milkshakes! Parker of course, dripped chocolate on his shorts. Which made me feel better...now that we got that out of the way, I didn't have to anticipate what actually was going to end up on his clothes. Bless his heart, he is so sweet and so innocent. He makes me laugh at all the cute things that come out of his mouth. He didn't know what to think of the 'RED' hot dog that he got. He isn't old enough to know thats what we eat in the south...and they are good.

Brianna even complimented how good the burgers were. Another reason to move to Raleigh....we have Char-grill!

We left there and headed back to Chris' to pick up the truck and some shovels then on to Patsy's. I know people think Im crazy. Some I want to put in the back corner of my yard where I can't get anything to grow, then also some on the opposite side of the back yard where I have a huge pile of dirt that nothing grows but weeds. I figure the way bamboo multiplies, it should cover it fairly quickly.

Chris & I shoveled through and got some, which at the time didn't see very tall. Everyone knows how hard bamboo is, but I was actually almost hanging off a stalk pulling it while Chris was shoveling the other side to attempt to loosen the dirt and it never broke. Totally amazing!

I then needed teamwork to get the 7 or so stalks to Chris' truck. As you can see, they are tall.

It wasn't until we got them in his truck, did I realize how long they actually were. They hung off the back of the truck a good 18 feet and dragging the ground. Chris used a tie down to make sure they were going anywhere. I followed him and laughed most of the way because we were all betting at what speed it would take to get all the tops actually off the ground. I thought maybe around 45mph they would be airborn but we got up to 45 and they were still barely on the ground. I had to stop for gas, and I told Chris that if we had hit I-40 that he probably would have gotten them all off the ground. We were all laughing. I meant to get a picture, but all of us there will never forget the picture...including Patsy, whose driveway we left and Im sure she was thinking how crazy we were. Well, maybe not, of course she's Chris' mom and she has known me for about 15 years...so I guess she knows we are pretty crazy...just now we are crazy together!

Brianna & Parkers Excellent Adventure-Day 1

Actually, its more like Day 3, but Mom left yesterday so today was actually Day 1 for me! I had bought Mudcats tickets for all of us for a 12p game. I had to wake everyone up around 10a to let them know we needed to leave in an hour. Needless to say, we stopped for lunch! It was an entertaining ride to Five County Stadium to say the least.

We had front row seats along the 3rd baseline, just off from home plate. They were great seats. We hadn't even gotten to our seats yet when everyone was picking out what food they wanted. Round 1 went to funnel cake by Lauren & Parker!

Parker wanted his own camera to take pictures. He actually had me take this one as he said 'take a picture of my molars'...when I was done, he said 'where are my molars?'. I should have said 'in your ear'. ha ha. Parker had a blast taking pictures.
Chris & Parker...two crazy guys! We had a rain delay in the top of the 2nd inning. It was fun watching them run out the tarp and the kids enjoyed watching them run. They were actually hoping that someone would fall.

We passed the time entertaining each other as we waited for the rain to stop. Finally, after about 30 minutes they decided to resume the game. They had to pull up the tarp, check some wet spots on the field and then resume play.

Chris was happy his head wasn't cut off in the picture. Probably because HE took the picture. ha ha.

P-monster showing off his new hair! This, of course, in the rain delay. Yes, notice the hawaiian punch stain on his shirt. That was the 1st thing we bought. The clean white shirt, didn't last long.

They look like angels, don't they? So innocent! NOT! All in all we had a great day, even though we survived 2 rain delays before they finally ended up calling the game in the 5th inning. It didn't seem like it was raining anywhere else in the state except right over the ballfield. Even though they called the game, I loved going with everyone and I think everyone had a blast, despite the rain! And, after all, isn't that what its all about?

One heck of a luau.....

Allison's 13th birthday party was at Lake Benson. I had rented Shelter #2 from 12p-3p. Allison invited some friends, and had decided on a beach/luau type theme. We had gotten decorations ordered and had gotten some from Patsy. It did look festive. I had put the CD's I made along with the beach shot glasses, and the autograph glass all together. Allison made sure everyone signed it!

Patsy brought Jordan & Chase. I am so glad they got to come. And Patsy and Chris almost matched. Everyone enjoyed their straw hat and the lei's we had.

You would think that everyone like Allison, based on the table of presents that kept getting bigger and bigger. We had lawn games, and the kids went walking around the lake. It did end up being in the mid 90's with little breeze. But the kids had fun and it was nice since most of them were tracked out and didn't have to go back to school on Monday.

Chris was the 'official' cook. All the burgers and hot dogs went quickly. I guess 13 year olds eat more? Not sure, but the boys sure ate alot. Reminder to self: more food, less everything else because teenagers don't care. ha ha

Mom brought the cake from the Spring Hill Bakery (of course). Where else would we get a cake. This makes the 13th year that Allison has had a cake from the Spring Hill Bakery. I have yet to find a bakery that makes cakes as good as the bakery I grew up with. I could eat an entire cake by myself!

Allison & Garrett. Garrett was the only boy who showed up in his Hawaiian shirt. I was so proud of him. Allison & Garrett have been friends for a long time and he is a great kid. Actually all of the kids that Allison is friends with are great. Very respectful and alot of parental involvement. Im so proud of Allison for her choices in friends and who she chooses to hang out with!

After the pinata busted, the kids went scrambling over the 20+ pounds of candy. Some placed theirs in their hats so no one would steal their favorite candy. Someone here had put a starfish in that I had placed all over the tables. It was cute.

Parker, Brianna, Adam, Brian, Leah, Jordan are in the back row and Lauren, Alyssa, Sarah, Brooke, Allison & Garrett are in the front row. A great group of kids and I think they all had a blast!

Brianna helped me carry stuff to the car after trying to wrap things up to continue the birthday celebrations at the Homewood Suites. I turned around and thought I was seeing the next Chiquita Banana girl. I think Brianna needs a job!

We left the Lake, dropped stuff off at the house and then headed to the Homewood Suites with Allison, Lauren, Brianna, Brooke & Alyssa. I also took Parker and mom came to get him later. The girls were excited. When we got there, there were a ton of people at the pool but after about 30 minutes, most of them left and we headed down for over an hour.

They really did have a blast. They also got to decorate their own drink glass and I had ordered pizza & chicken. That didn't last long. I left them around 10p and was in the next room. We gave them the room beside the elevator and we were on the other side, so hopefully they wouldn't be bothering anyone all night.

We got up this morning and packed the car and headed back home. I hope Allison had a great birthday party. I think everyone had a great time! It was fun. Even though she isn't 'technically' a teenager yet. But this Saturday she will be! And Im sure she will remind me.