The new look

I'm on a roll posting so many days in a row!! Taking a break today from the catching up on family trips, to bring you breaking news. Rebekah got her new look today . . . . yes, the braces are on. Well, on the teeth she still has left. She started with just 4 teeth, in the front, and we'll see what more has to be done as the rest of the teeth come in. The bottom braces will be put on in 3-4 months. Kind of nice to do it in stages if you ask me.

You notice there are no pictures. At this point, she didn't want pictures taken. I tried to get a "before" and "after" picture this morning at her appointment, but she was having none of it. She went in a little sad, and anxious, and came out excited and bubbly! She picked hot pink bands for her braces, and is just very excited wtih it all.

She came home with a goodie bag full of oral care supplies: wax in three cute boxes, special floss threaders, a travel toothbrush, toothpaste, a travel mirror and several other odds and ends. She spent a lot of time going through the bag on the way home. She's armed with all the info she needs on new toothbrushing/flossing technique, and I think she's ready to go.

Let's hope the enthusiasm doesn't wear off before the braces come off!

That other trip

In the interest of catching up, here are some pictures from our other trip. We got to go to Sacramento! Since John was a semifinalist for Teacher of the Year at the state level, he was honored in the State capitol and we took the chance to have a quick family weekend away.

There was panning for um, gems, aplenty. . . .


Caverns to explore. . . .

Creatures to meet. . . .

And that was just the first day!! The next day we got to tour the capital building, and John was honored at the banquet.

The steps of the capitol building. . .

And at the banquet. .

Then there was the long drive home. That will have to be saved for next time. Here's a hint of what we got do do though. . . .

What we've been doing. . . .

riding new and interesting animals. . .

being forced to lie on a bed of nails in the name of "education"

climbing the walls. . . . .

making smoke signals. . . .

Okay, so those were all things we did on a field trip back at the end of January. I hadn't gotten around to posting the pictures. It was a fun field trip--especially the bed of nails. It really didn't compare to this field trip though. . . .

We went to the Ducks First Flight Field Trip. The Ducks are Anaheim's ice hockey team, and this was a wild ride. Very hard to describe what it's like to be among 15,000 kids, all screaming at the top of their lungs, in the ice arena! Not being big hockey fans, I didn't really expect much, but by the end of the trip, we were all actually thinking a hockey game might be exciting! Maybe that was part of the point.

We have been on one other recent field trip too, but I'll have to make that a post for another day.

Six teeth

That's how many teeth the tooth fairy will find tonight, under Rebekah's pillow. Yes, that is a lot of teeth. Rebekah believes it will also be a lot of $$. In preparation for her upcoming venture into the orthodontic world, Rebekah had oral surgery today, to remove 6 of her baby teeth. Fortunately, some were already loose, and all of them already had part of the root dissolved. Unfortunately, she still had to have them out. Some of her permanent teeth were trying to come in kind of east-west, since the baby ones were already occupying the north-south position. We are all hoping that this helps get those directions straightened out.

Rebekah did very well with it all, and said the IV wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. The oral surgeon was fabulous, and we'll be keeping his number handy in case we have wisdom teeth in our future. In fact, Rebekah had such a quick recovery, she was sipping a milkshake about an hour after the procedure started! Unfortunately, she is a little sore tonight, and found lunch kind of difficult. Kind of hard to chew food when you are missing so many teeth. We are praying that those permanent teeth come in very quickly.

Next week will be a follow up appointment with the oral surgeon, then the week after, it's time for the braces! We counted on the calendar, and Rebekah has had an appointment with one dentist or another for 4 straight weeks. I won't mention the appointments for others in the family, going to the doctor, eye doctor and dentist. Praise God for good insurance, and low co-payments!!