A Katrina Update

Long time readers will remember my husband, Jeff's best friend Chad. Chad has come down from Virginia to the Gulf Coast in order to volunteer his time and skills as a contractor to help rebuild homes destroyed by Katrina. He is also staying in our garage off and on. Mostly off, as he stays in Pearlington, MS where he does the majority of his work.

Can you believe there are still people whose homes have not yet been fixed? Can you believe that there are still hundreds of people coming down here to help strangers. It totally amazes me.

For many families the problem is that they are stuck in a no win situation. Crippled with house payments and insurance premiums on the home which was destroyed. Unable to stop making those payments or lose the hope of ever rebuilding or recouping their losses. So these people live in FEMA trailers that have some weird toxic gas that is making them all sick. When you are sick it is hard to move forward and get a lot done.

The volunteers come here and they have no money they are just here to work. Someone has to buy the supplies to fix these houses. Many charities like the Salvation Army etc. are offering grants to people in order to buy the materials to fix there homes. Some people get the materials and fix their homes themselves and do such a poor job that the house needs to be re-fixed.

Many of the folks in these situations of overwhelming despair are not reacting well to the more than two years of hell they have endured. Many are trying to cheat the system by applying for grants at more than one place. Many are getting free supplies donated to them and selling those supplies to someone else. Many people are using their grant money at the casinos or for drugs. When the volunteers come down they see that many of the people who they have come all this way to help are less than honest people. Or so the story goes, Chad says that he has only heard these stories of thievery and dishonesty but never actually seen it with his own eyes. Many volunteers get frustrated and don't want to help those who are less than honest or are not willing to help themselves. Many people who come all this way to make a difference in the world, when they arrive are very upset to find that the people they have come to help are poor.

Mental health is also a very real part of this dynamic. Whether a persons mental health has deteriorated due to the trauma of Katrina and the resulting two years of hell or if they were struggling with it before hand, many if not most of the people who have yet to recover from Katrina are in poor mental health. They have given up or can't see past where they are today.

My thoughts run to the upcoming election, what do the fine candidates have planned for our country for our poor?

Rude Texting

Not long ago I offered to drive a young lady and her two small children around town in order to buy a new car. She worked in Jeff's office (Air Force). Jeff was busy that day, I can't remember what he was doing. Her sponsor, a person assigned to help you out when you are reasigned to a new base, was also busy. I drove her around for more than two hours. The entire time she did not speak to me except to answer direct questions. Otherwise she was texting.

I felt rather unapreciated. I believe in Karma and in the military we move a lot and depend on the kindness of others. It was my turn to be kind. Many have been kind to me. But, she didn't even have a polite conversation with me. I wonder what her mom would say. My husband is her boss's boss so perhaps she just didn't know what to say. Two hours sitting next to me in a car going from one used car lot to the next and she did not have a thing to say to me. She was very young, closer to Mandy's age (16) than mine (38). Have you ever experienced this phenomenia? Busy Mom's post, Teen Texting Time inspired this post.

I wonder if Mandy is ever this rude. She also has unlimited text messaging. She doesn't tend to talk to me while we are driving in the car. She does tend to text her friends while I am driving her to work, or to the movies. I wonder why this never struck me as rude. Maybe we need to have a conversation.

Camping

Jeff and Lily are sleeping in a tent in the backyard. I have just come inside from the campfire portion of the camping trip.

The firewood I bought from the grocery store was wet. It took us several hours to get it really burning and by that time we were ready for bed. We were able to burn some marshmallows and make smores.

I was a little leery of having a camp fire in the backyard. Instead of dirt we have sand underneath our grass. We live two blocks from the Gulf of Mexico. The previous owners of this house had an above ground pool. It was blown down by Katrina and grass has not been planted where the pool used to be. Therefore, we have a patch of sand smack dab in the middle of our backyard. Perfect for campfires.

I really love camping in the backyard. Especially when we eat dinner in the house, and I get to sleep in my bed. Best camping trip ever!

A Happy 3rd Anniversary Was Had By All

Yesterday was the third anniversary of the my very first post on this blog. I think I have had just about as many template changes as I have posts. I am almost done with this one, but still have some more ideas, I want to try and figure out.

I started this blog with a post called, Quality of Life where I tried to write about my thoughts having traveled all over the world. I am still trying to find a way to write about my thoughts. I think I have gained more wisdom than I have imparted to others.

It was through the multiple attempts to make this blog pretty and unique that I discovered my love of web design/development. I tend to have more fun changing the colors than coming up with words. While I started with a lot to say, I still have tons more to say, the journey took me on a new path in my life.

I was on a path to become a high school math teacher three years ago. I had a lovely little one year old Lily at home, a lovely thirteen year old Mandy who I was still taller than, and I was taking classes face to face at the University of Maryland campus located on the base in Misawa, Japan where we lived. I would be up all night at school and up early in the morning with the little one.

So much has changed yet it all remains the same. I was in a good place when I started this blog and I am still in a good place. I still have a lot to do, a lot to accomplish, many bad habits to break...

I spent the day yesterday hoping to finish my blog redesign and then write a fabulously interesting blog post reminiscing about the past three years. Instead I ended up taking Lily to play with her friends at McDonald's and then we ended up outside playing with other friends. I won a 9 year old in a foot race. I tried to teach Lily to pedal her new bike. But, working on the blog, did not really happen much.

GIRLS RULE boys drool

My husband listens to a stupid radio show every morning on his way to work. There are a bunch of rednecks who discuss current events and spew their hateful bigoted opinions onto the public. This is how my husband finds out about current events and forms opinions about politics. I cannot believe I am married to someone who is so different from me. He gets a kick out of repeating this crap to me at the dinner table and we end up having a fun little debate and I end up using a lot of bad language. He then reminds me not to use bad language in front of the kids. Better to hear some bad language than to hear the evil that comes out of his mouth.

An example: Yesterday's topic was Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16 year old sister of Britney Spears who is pregnant. The boys on the radio reported that she was fired from her TV show due to her pregnancy, but after the show went up in ratings due to her pregnancy Nickelodeon decided to renew her contract and do another season of her show. The boys on the radio were outraged at the corporate greed allowing this sinner to work.

Can you really fire someone for being pregnant? How is she supposed to buy diapers? When I was in school girls who got pregnant were expelled, is that still going on? I think I should call my daughter's school and find out.

I personally don't feel that being pregnant is morally wrong. I don't feel that it will cause young girls to follow along and get pregnant themselves. My 16 year old daughter doesn't decide her morality based on the girls on TV, does yours?

The boys on the radio went on to say that any girl in Louisiana (where the Spears girls hail) who is not pregnant by 16 is thought to have something wrong with her. They then went on to say that the only reason that Jamie Lynn got pregnant was to hold on to her boyfriend who was losing interest. They wanted to impart to her the message that she is so cute she could have her pick on penises, that boys would be throwing their penises at her like Zorro swords. It only got worse from there. Maybe the humor has been lost in translation but my husband was laughing at this point in the telling of the tale. I was using bad language and talking over him so I may have missed the punch line.

People wonder why women vote for Clinton. The male reporters who refer to every political candidate from the beginning of time by that person's last name, and all call Hillary by her first name. They all speculated about the NH victory say that the only reason anyone voted for Clinton is because she cried. She didn't cry by the way that is the grossest exaggeration I have ever heard. I believe the female bashing is only going to get worse. My friend Lorelei believes I am overreacting and that my perception of how the reporters are discussing HILLARY is way off. My husband totally agrees with Lorelei.

Does rough housing cause hitting?

I am trying to decide if we should eliminate rough housing from our daily diet until Lily gets over her current hitting phase. Looking for some input...

We rough house quite a bit at our house. We always have. Perhaps it is our way of showing affection. Lily knows the proper way to wrestle and fight, the way where you don't really hurt anyone, you pretend. We pretend to beat each other to a pulp. No one is hurt during the beat down. Except that one time my arms were pinned to my side and I was pushed off the bed onto the ceramic tile floor and I sustained a really bad head ache. But, that was Jeff not Lily. And an accident or so I am told.

The problem is that Lily is hitting while not wrestling. She has chosen this method of venting her anger and frustration at life in general. Lily gets frustrated a lot. Especially with me. For instance I tend to say, "shoes and socks". As in, "please put on your shoes and socks." Lily feels that since one puts on her socks first, the phrase ought to be, "socks and shoes." I am supposed to remember that and when I forget she has a melt down. Melt downs include hitting of either herself or me. Good thing she hits nicely like we do in wrestling or we would be quite bruised.

Lily has always been difficult to convince to change her behavior. We have found ways to convince her but it takes time. We use a combination of punishment and reward to change bad behaviors. She has a history of taking an extraordinarily long time to change a bad behavior. But, she does eventually relent and then she doesn't regress. It took me 3 months before she could even walk to get her to stop climbing on top of the tables. It took me 6 months of walking to the playground everyday to teach her not to run into the street. All kinds of examples, eating at the table, using silverware, potty training, picking up her toys, so many battles. It all used to make me so mad. I used to lose my temper with Lily a lot. The last couple of months I have been getting better. Losing my temper doesn't help any. She is a good kid, I adore her just the way she is.

So we are working on not hitting when she is frustrated. It is not going so well. That is to be expected, she is Lily. Still I wonder if we completely eliminate all hitting and rough housing from our day to day life if that might help her to get over her inappropriate hitting sooner. Or if the rough housing is separate and a good way for her to have a great time interacting with her Mom, Dad and sister. What do you all think? Do you rough house? Do your kids hit?

Some of my other posts about my difficulties raising Lily:

• Playground Justice


• By the light of the nightlight


• Bed.Bed.Bed.Bed

Is this about money?

I have decided to take at least one semester off from school perhaps more. This has been a difficult decision. Getting a degree has been a life long desire and goal. Putting that on the back burner yet again is done with a bit of frustration. But, you can't always get what you want, or so the song goes.

This last year we spent way too much money. This upcoming year we are trying to re-coop some of what went out last year. While I don't feel like we are the victims of the economy, it certainly isn't helping. Being a stay at home mom is very important to me for a variety of reasons. I have decided that being home for the family is more important to me than finishing my degree in a timely manner. I could just get a job. I could just get a student loan. But, that is not the course I have chosen. So here I am.

It is my dream to become a web developer. This is the person who writes the code to make the beautifully designed websites come together and work. I have been reading job boards advertising for these types of jobs for a couple of years now. I want to make sure that I am prepared when I do go back to work. Many of these jobs require a degree in computer science, but many do not. All of the jobs require experience in things like PHP, Java Script, Flash, Ajax, Word Press, etc. My school doesn't offer any courses in these things. So even if I got a degree I still wouldn't know how to do the job I want to do. So I am going to teach myself how to do that stuff. I have found a ton of free information and tutorials on the Internet. So in essence I feel like I am still working toward my goal, but I wont be spending any money for the time being.

Hopefully I will be able to share with you some fun things as I learn them.

That is the plan for the next 7 months, until Lily starts school. I am hoping to teach myself to be a web developer in 7 months. Of course I am already proficient in many programming languages so this wont be as hard as it sounds. I hope.

kick 'em to the curb

Last night I was very tired and wanted to go to bed as early as possible. Jeff felt the same. Lily chose to be extremely difficult to get into bed and I was even more exhausted by the time I finally got her down. I was just walking around the house doing those last minute before bed things...

Mandy came out of her room crying, her friend had just been kicked out of her house by her mother and needed us to rush over and pick her up and bring her to our home. After a discussion with Jeff and Mandy we decided that we could only pick her up to spend the night at our house if I spoke to her mom and her mom said it was ok. I have only ever met this girl once and have never met her mom. Mandy says that, according to the friend, the mom is terribly mean, calling the friend all kinds of names and that they have been not getting along for a very long time.

Back and forth went the phone calls, just when Mandy was about to hand me the telephone so I could speak to the mom, the friend tells Mandy that the mom has decided that she is calling social services to get rid of her daughter. Can you do that? What is the number? Kidding. Seriously can one call social services and have someone come pick up your kid after 9PM?

The whole thing sounded a bit fishy to me. But, really I don't know these people. I guess it is possible that a mother would kick her 16 year old daughter out of the house when it is 30 degrees outside at 9PM, with no car, and no where to go. And the child could possibly be completely innocent, right? This child was a bit on the mouthy side the one time I met her, but Mandy says she has had a hard life.

I had a hard life, or so I felt at 16. I can tell you that the truth was not a place I lived with a whole lot of regularity. The friend did seem to be conversing with the mom while she was on the phone with Mandy. Not really sure the definition of being kicked out. Was friend ever actually outside of her home or was it a metaphoric type of being kicked out. Was she kicked out as soon as she got herself a ride out of there? I just had no idea what was going on and I have trouble deciphering teen speak at times. It always seems to involve a lot of trust me and don't you trust me kind of examples. Mandy was so upset after her friend hung up the phone. I stayed up for hours with her, just in case. Mandy actually hugged me without it being my birthday. Never heard back. Don't know what happened. Terribly tired today.

When I was trying to explain to Mandy that perhaps her friend being quite distraught unintentionally exaggerated the situation a bit. I reminded Mandy of some of our disagreements. I asked her if she had ever been so mad she just wanted to storm out of the house? She said, yes, but not in a couple of years. That made me smile. Reflectively it is terribly nice that our relationship is now on an even keel. We have had our ups and downs, she still doesn't do her chores without being reminded, she still sleeps all day and stays up all night unless I drag her kicking and screaming out of bed, she still talks back and acts like we are killing her if we force her to eat dinner with us at the table... But, we are able to articulate our disdain for one another without getting "that mad". At least for now. Can everyone please knock on some wood.

Mandy says her friend got kicked out for not doing chores and talking back. Guess who "forgot" to wash dishes and take out trash last night? We had just had a family meeting about not doing chores and the consequences the day before. Perhaps my style of trying to get a teen to take out the trash and wash a dish once in awhile is not they style that actually works. Maybe a night in the cold... Would you have rushed over to pick up a one of your kid's friends? Is that even legal? I am feeling terribly guilty.

Perspective

My favorite part of the holidays is the part between Christmas and New Years. I love that we are no longer busy. We have time to just be. After Christmas I spent an enormous amount of time playing with Lily.

Her new favorite game is us going into her room and me pretending to be Lily and her pretending to be Mommy. She proceeds to tell me exactly what I can and cannot do. Mostly what I cannot do. She takes toys away from me and tells me to play with this other toy instead. She takes toys away from me and tells me how I should be playing with it. We do puzzles and she gives me the pieces I am allowed to put in the puzzle and tells me where exactly to put the piece. Oh my word. I cannot help but wonder if this is her perception of how I treat her? Of course it isn't the reality of how I treat her, but is it her perception? Maybe she is just a bossy little girl. Since then I have caught myself being bossy and I am taking a serious break from telling Lily exactly how to play with her toys.

Here is a photo shoot. I try to get a good photo of Lily to send to family, but it never seems to work. I think if you look at all the pictures together they are hilarious. But, none of them on their own is very good.

Happy New Year!

Much Ado about Money

I am hosting a blog village carnival on January 28th called:

Much Ado about Money

Join us for another Family Blog Carnival - MUCH ADO about MONEY. Whether you earn it, spend it, save it, invest it, or even lose it, we all deal with money issues in our daily lives. Here's your chance to give your views on the economy, discuss ways of earning money while blogging, tell how you've gotten out of debt, or worse, how you've gotten into debt. Tell us about your business, or your dreams of a business. If your post relates to money, it's a perfect fit for this carnival. We look forward to reading what you have to say. -blogcarnival.com

A blog carnival is an opportunity for a variety of bloggers to write about the same topic and then read each others posts. Whether you write a post or just read everyone else's post carnivals give us the opportunity to meet new bloggers. On January 28th I will write a post with a list of links to all the various posts on all the various blogs participating in the carnival. Submit your post here or send me an email: marshamlow@yahoo.com

Blog village is a community of family friendly bloggers that I have belonged to for quite some time now. You are invited to become a member of blog village, go here to become a member. I have met many a blogging buddy at the village, including: Shelia, Naomi, Marion, and the founder and facilitator of the village Rosemary AKA Dirty Butter. Feel free to visit the village any time and browse through the members blogs, no membership is required to visit only to be listed. Click here to visit the village, the icon is always on my sidebar too.

The rules: A Quarterly Carnival open to all members of BLOG VILLAGE and also to any blog that links directly TO a Villager's blog. (My blog is a village blog- so you are all good). We invite you to join us in exploring a variety of Family Friendly themes.

1. Blog MUST belong EITHER to a BLOG VILLAGE member OR link directly TO a BLOG VILLAGE Blog. - I am in the village and you all link to me...
   


2. Only 1 entry per blog.


3. Only English language posts will be accepted.


4. No posts with titles, or with pictures, containing profanity, or of a sexual or suggestive nature, will be accepted.


5. Choose MEMBER or GUEST from the Categories, and put the required information in the REMARKS.


6. GUESTS of Villagers must submit the URL of the BLOG VILLAGE blog they are linked TO for your entry to be eligible for consideration.


7. VILLAGERS need to enter their MEMBER NUMBER in the REMARKS.


8. The post must consist of your own original work or you must have the written permission of the author of the words and images used in your post.

Submit your post here.

Or you can send me an email and I will go to all the troubles and formalities of submitting your blog. If you don't want to write a post I hope you will participate by reading the blogs listed and leaving tons of inflammatory comments.

9:51AM

I stole this meme from Laura.

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?
   
   I moved to Mississippi, I had never been to Mississippi, who knew it would come to feel like home for me so easily.


2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
   
   My resolutions are always the same: eat better, exercise more, be kinder...I never keep them


3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
   
   No one in my real life. One of my very favorite bloggers Julia, has or is about to give birth to twins. After trying for many years and going through many losses. My heart is filled with so much joy for her and her family. And Sari surprised us all by telling us she was having a baby just days before she did.
   


4. Did anyone close to you die?
   
   No, but I found out on Christmas day that my dear sweet Grandma has terminal cancer


5. What countries did you visit?
   
   I started the year in Misawa, Japan. I still miss Japan sometimes, but not the snow. I really loved having a lovely 70 degree sunny Christmas day.


6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
   
   A job.


7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
   
   March 29, due to the time difference we left Japan, arrived in Mississippi and closed on our house.
   


8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
   
   I made a lot of progress with Lily and her behavior and teaching her to count and spell etc. I helped Mandy navigate moving during her sophomore year of high school. I think I do a pretty good job of supporting and loving Jeff to help him be all that he can be. All told, I feel that my biggest achievement is being a great wife and mother.


9. What was your biggest failure?
   
   I have lost my temper with Lily more times than I can count.


10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
    
    I twisted my ankle at the beginning of the year, I had some pretty funky colds, I got stung by fire ants, and I got a severe case of anemia. Depending on your definition of suffer, I guess.


11. What was the best thing you bought?
    
    My new house.


12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
    
    Jeff, he is good to me and the girls


13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
    
    I am under strict orders not to blog about this, never give your husband your blog address. Let's just say someone has irked me more than I have been irked in 10 years. This person sent an email to us and many others to say we don't know Jesus and are in need of prayer. Right now I am in need of your prayers that I don't accidentally put rat poison in this person's coffee. Hoping Jeff doesn't read more than the first few lines as per usual or I am in BIG trouble.


14. Where did most of your money go?
    
    Moving, cars, braces, Christmas, college, I don't keep track or I would have a nervous breakdown.


15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
    
    Owning my own home, moving to Mississippi, volleyball games, Lily counting to 100 and then counting backwards from 100 to zero, lots of things - I am easily amused.


16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
    
    Souja Boy. Do you have any idea what they lyrics of this song are? And what they mean? it is wildly inappropriate, freaks me out to see little kids doing that dance. I must be getting old to care.


17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
    
    a) happier or sadder? Happier, we were about to move and that was really stressing me out.
    
    b) thinner or fatter? Slightly thinner.
    
    c) richer or poorer? much, much poorer


18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
    
    Exercise


19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
    
    Eating sweets


20. How did you spend Christmas?
    
    We got woken at 6AM and opened presents. We ate a lovely breakfast and spent the next several hours putting things together. We had a lovely meal, a lovely walk, and then played Risk. Mandy and I teamed up to take out Jeff and Chad, we annihilated them and then put the game away. New Years we are planning to take them out playing Spades.


21. Did you fall in love in 2007?
    
    Don't gag, but I love my husband more every year.


22. What was your favorite TV program?
    
    Saving Grace, Monday nights on TNT.


23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
    
    Yes, very much see above. I haven't hated anyone in a very long time. It is not good for me or for my family. I am working on it. But, I can't seem to get over it.


24. What was the best book you read?
    
    Harry Potter


25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
    
    Queen. Mandy and I both love Queen and it comes on the radio here all the time, it never came on the radio overseas. The very best moment of the year for me was singing Bohemian Rhapsody at full blast in the car driving down the road with Mandy. She and I have always been so close and these teen years have been so hard on me, just having a moment with her where we connect was rhapsody.


26. What did you want and get?
    
    Globe and clock. I was so surprised.


27. What did you want and not get?
    
    I can't think of anything, I am very spoiled.


28. What was your favorite film of this year?
    
    I didn't see a lot of films this year, and the ones I did see are not memorable.


29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
    
    I was 38 this year, I always forget and have to ask Lily. Jeff took me out to dinner and we had a family party, it was lovely.


30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
    
    I feel that all my accomplishments are abstract, being a mom, being a wife, school, I wish I could have something to show for my life sometimes. Like a paycheck or a degree, an award.


31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
    
    My fashion is getting better. I got a cool new hair cut and I even wear makeup sometimes. I try to wear decent clothes when I go out of the house. I would say I am getting better, but still a work in progress.


32. What kept you sane?
    
    Iron. Before I knew that I was anemic, I thought I was losing my mind or going threw depression. I never wanted to get out of bed and didn't have the energy to even care. I felt so guilty because my life is everything I have ever wanted. Iron pills saved my sanity.


33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
    
    Julian Mahon


34. What political issue stirred you the most?
    
    Education: the disparity between rich and poor, the cost of college, we suck in comparison to the rest of the world...


35. Who did you miss?
    
    My family, and my friends, sometimes traveling the world is lonely.


36. Who was the best new person you met?
    
    Lorelei


37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007

    
    Lily likes to push my buttons.
    
    
38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
    
    
Mississippi, won't you keep on shining on me.

Wow that was a long list.

Braces

Mandy needs an absolute ton of dental work. She is meticulous about her teeth and has never had a cavity. But, when she was 9 she fell off of her friend's bike and knocked out her two front teeth. Over the years she has had them put back in, had a root canal, had both extracted, had dozens of temporary replacement devices. One year the flipper broke during her birthday slumber party. One broke on safari in Kenya. They break at all the wrong times.

In order to get her teeth fixed permanently we needed to wait for her to stop growing. She also needs to have braces. The loss of the two front teeth caused the bone on the top jaw to deteriorate and it is now much shorter than the bottom jaw. She has to have this repaired with braces. For the past seven years we were not living in America. Supposedly when you live overseas with the military you get free dental and orthodontics, however, the orthodontist gets to choose his patients, and he did not choose Mandy. We tried and tried for seven years, but they refused to treat Mandy and we had no other dental options, except to pay out of our own pocket for an Italian or Japanese orthodontist to treat Mandy. Have you ever heard of such nonsense, the orthodontist gets paid the same no matter how many patients he choses to treat, and he only has to treat the people whom he wishes to treat.

Now we are back in America and we have crappy dental insurance. We have been here for nine months. We started the process of getting Mandy's teeth fixed on day one. We found a local orthodontist who has a great reputation, his office can do everything we need, dentist, orthodontist, oral surgeon, implants, etc. We went to several appointments. Paid hundreds of dollars. They took xrays, impressions, did a work up and decided that they couldn't treat Mandy because her case is too severe. If it had been treated when she was nine, it would have been no problem but waiting all these years the tooth loss created bone loss etc. He sent us to a specialist about 45 minutes down the street.

We had to redo all the appointments. The xrays, the impressions, the consultations etc. Finally we have a plan. Yesterday was day one, Mandy got her spacers to get her mouth ready for the next set of impressions, followed by actually getting braces. Yesterday was also when they told us the price. Holy crap. They did give us a $500 discount if we paid up front in cash. Which took about 1/2 our savings. Now we are truly poor.

This past year we spent a whole hell of a lot more than we earned. This next year we have to cut back. Can't spend any money. At least the braces are paid for. But, the day after Christmas, wow that was awful. We now have two and a half years of braces and then her mouth will be ready for implants or a bridge depending on a lot of things. So it begins. Poor Mandy, I had braces, they hurt.