Great-Grandma's Lung

Well, Great-Grandma Beaman is having the spot on her lung removed. The Drs think it is small and will send it in for biopsy afterwards. No huge news on that front.

8th Tooth

Alaina lost her 8th tooth the other day. She pulled out her last tooth HERSELF which amazed the heck out of me, so when she yelped while eating a granola bar and stuck her fingers in her mouth, I wasn't too concerned. Isn't she now a tough cookie? Then the wailing began.

"Where is it? Where is it?" she cried.

I looked in her mouth and there was a red indentation in front marking where the tooth had been. However, there was a large tooth in the same position behind that. Strange. I didn't remember a large tooth behind the loose one.

I looked on the ground, no tooth. Alaina is panicky. "Alaina, you didn't swallow it. I'm sure you would have known." I looked in her mouth again. "Did you have a tooth behind the loose one?" She is too crazed to even hear me. "Alaina, put your hand in your mouth. There is a tooth there. Did you have a tooth behind the loose one?"

She put her hand in her mouth. She is a little confused, as am I. I got her to put her head down on the couch so I could look a bit more. I touched the tooth and it seemed solid. We've never had a tooth pop out on its own so this is kind of weird. I touched the tooth again and poked it pretty good. This time I dislodged it. Turns out...her tooth unattached at the front but was still attached in back, turned sideways, and tried to pretend it was a back tooth.

I tried to turn it back the way it should be, and it really didn't want to go. Alaina started HOWLING and MOANING and WHINING and CRYING big huge crocidle tears that "This is the worst day EVER!" The whole drama of the situation was really hil-arious. I laughed really hard - but really quietly - at her. Is that wrong?

I tugged at the back portion of the tooth that was still attached. It didn't come out so I tried turning it around again to get it back to the proper position in her mouth. It didn't want to do that, either. Stubborn thing. So I told Alaina it had to come out. It could not stay in her mouth sideways. It would be too uncomfortable and hurt her. So I tugged again. Success! It popped out.

Pulling teeth is not my favorite thing to do. But Alaina really needed me to, so I did. Alaina also needed me to stay calm for her, so I did. Children really stretch us, don't they?

Great-Grandma Beaman

Great-Grandma Beaman has cancer on her lung. As a recap, her left arm was amputated 3 months ago due to bone cancer (this was necessary because her arm was broken, that's how they found the cancer), and approx. 3 weeks ago she had a mastectomy to remove breast cancer. Since her lung cannot be chopped off, the previous method of recovery, I believe our time with her is limited. She is meeting with a Dr on Friday to discuss alternatives, which will probably boil down to how much time she has left.

Kevin is taking it very well so far. When Great-Grandpa died 13 years ago he was inconsolable for days, but his death was more sudden. Great-Grandma has lived alone since Great-Grandpa died and she seems ready to be with him again. She is a good Christian faith-filled woman. Actually, I'm concerned about Alaina. When I told her about Grandma's breast cancer she cried for about 45 minutes and she was very disturbed. However, it did open up a wonderful discussion between us and I believe it strengthened her testimony. I'll hold off this time saying anything until we hear back from Friday's meeting.

Little Singer

Bryn is always singing something: church songs, pop songs, made-up songs, baby songs, and especially theme songs. She likes to play with my ipod but the ear buds don’t fit right and they fall out, frustrating her. One day I got out her video game headphones and attached those. She was so happy to listen to music without interruption. Here just a few snippets of her two favorite songs on my ipod (first one Poker Face by Lady Gaga, second one Life's What You Make It by Hannah Montana):

Nauvoo

Our family went to Nauvoo on July 25 along with my parents. It’s so nice to have extra help when traveling with Bryn.

The girls hate to be in the car for more than 10 minutes (seriously…when we stopped to pick up my parents Claire was done being in the car, and the last half of the trip she was whining CONSTANTLY that she wanted to turn around and go back home) but they do eventually have fun. But their whining tires me out and grates on my nerves so that I have to warm up to the fun factor. But I was able to have fun, too.

First we went to the Family Living Center, then Children’s Play area (possibly not the actual names of attractions). We could have stayed at the Children’s Play area longer, it was way fun.

Listening/watching the rope demonstration:

Alaina was the only one who wanted to dress up:

Playing with old-fashioned toys:

Everyone wanted to try the stilts:

...even me. Although I fell down more than walked. I think my daypack threw me off. :)

Various:

The girls loved Kevin pulling them in the handcart so much Claire said she wanted to go back to Nauvoo THE NEXT DAY to do it again. Yes, after she complained for an hour on the way there. Alaina’s favorite house to go through was the school house, though I had to sit with Bryn outside because she was getting tired & cranky.

Kevin and I were actually not impressed with the pageant. It was way too long to start that late. Although it has good moments, I think it could be totally reworked for a stronger impression. But we had a great time playing.

Armor Thyro

This tiny little pill has changed my life dramatically in the last few days. Since Friday I have:
* taken out our front window screens, washed and dried them
* washed our 3 front windows
* removed sticky grime from the underside of the kitchen countertops
* organized medicines, thrown a bunch away, and made First Aid, Childrens, and Adult storage areas
* removed everything from the kitchen window sill
* scrubbed clean the backsplash (kitchen wall)
* cleaned the stove vent
* cleaned the stove top and front
* removed all toys, pictures, and non-essentials from the refrigerator front and side, kept only the family calendar on the front and a few other things on the non-showing side
*cleaned surface of refrigerator
* removed ALL items from countertops, leaving only telephone, knife block, utensil caddy
* wiped all splatters from cabinets
* organized and cleaned microwave cart
* removed everything from side of refrigerator except broom & quilt mat (for some reason I kept a bunch of foam core and poster board there)
* cleaned walls - no more grey line up the stairs on the wall without a banister, no more marks around the white board
* cleaned all doors
* cleaned all switch plates
* organized toys and filled a bucket of old toys for next year's garage sale
* cleaned Alaina's room
* moved quilting materials from hanging basket it was breaking to another storage contraption
* organized master closet
* mowed back yard
* cleaned all kitchen chairs - no more sticky
* cleaned under lip of kitchen table - no more sticky
* organized under sink
* cleaned front of dishwasher
* dusted all surfaces
* spot cleaned carpet
* shopped for 3 hours on Sat saving money at Younkers yellow dot sales and Old Navy Give N Get
* exercised Mon & Tues for the first time in 4+ weeks

Mowing the lawn in the middle of the day drained me a bit, but I'll get going again. Yet today I will:
* mop kitchen floor
* clean Claire & Bryn's room
* vacuum upstairs
and possibly:
hang 2 shadow boxes and shelf in Alaina's room
clean computer area

So, what do you think - thyroid medicine working??