Softball

On Monday Grace had an orthodontist appointment. We just learned last week that our orthodontist is suddenly retiring. Some of you know that I had braces as an adult and in fact had them when Grace was born and for a few years after that. Anyway, I used this orthodontist off a recommendation from someone...I can't remember who anymore. He is an excellent orthodontist and has specialty brackets made for him that are smaller than typical brackets. He also has a different philosophy in regards to how fast you move teeth and expand palates.

We just started Grace's treatment about 6 months ago and I think most of the hard work is done already and her teeth are looking really good. The teeth that didn't have room to come in have started to break through now too. So anyway here we are in the middle of her obviously early treatment as she will have to have more treatment when she's older just like everyone else, as that is the normal age to get braces. Our biggest concern is that we get an orthodontist with a different philosophy than his that likes to just shove teeth around with little regard for pain or the future structural integrity of the palate. He's recommended an orthodontist that is in the complex we go to now and she also has a similar philosophy and uses the same brackets, but does to a few things differently. So I'm not sure what to do. We meet the orthodontist he's suggesting we use on Wednesday but I'd like to also talk to him about someone a little more similar to him that might also be closer. It's a real bummer and it also sucks that it's so suddenly. I'd really like to find out why he's doing this so quickly.

I usually go to bible study at my Dad's house on Monday nights and this week Grace came with me. I honestly thought she'd get bored at some point, but she really hung in there. I'm not sure how much she really understood, but was mostly paying attention and appeared to enjoy being there. It was cute as she brought her study bible with her and was reading along as we read through the scriptures we were discussing (2 Samuel Chaps 5, 6.) I think she especially liked our snack this week which was ice cream.

Tuesday was kind of crazy. We had plans to go swimming at my Aunt's friends house also with my Sister and her kids. The night before, Grace's friend from across the street asked her to go to Great America with her as it was the last day to use their bring a friend for free coupon. We decided to let her go with her friend and reschedule the swimming (sorry Nancey.) My Sister-in-law also called and wondered if we could go swimming on Tuesday. So she asked when we could swim at her house later in the week. I said either Thursday or Friday and they said Thursday sounded great. But not long after that my Aunt called and wanted to reschedule our swimming with my Sister and Thursday was the day as my Sister was busy on Friday. So now we have to reschedule with my Sister-in-law. It's hard to be popular...ha ha ha. I know it's the girls, not me, that are popular.

Yesterday we only had plans to take Grace to the library for a meet the author event. This local author was coming to read her book to the kids and then sign copies for them to take home. We couldn't do much during the day because the weather was still not cooperating. We've had a lot of severe weather here lately. In fact I'm concerned that the only large tree on our property which is in our back yard might have to be cut down. I think there is a crack in the middle of it now which would mean it's too weak to be left up. It probably wouldn't hit our house if it fell, but it would still affect us. It is actually over three properties, but the trunk is in our yard. I'd really hate to lose it as it provides a lot of shade for us. Speaking of storms and my Aunt, they did get their power turned back on Monday morning - close to Noon. Then when we had the severe weather today it went out again but came back on within a few hours. We're really lucky that it never went out for us.

So Julie wasn't home before we went to the library so we brought Riley with us and she acted about exactly as I expected...she was all over the place. She hadn't had much of a nap and so was tired and just didn't want to sit and listen or anything like that. I tried to let her explore in the back of the room, but of course she wanted to go up by the kids. That would have been fine, but she wasn't quiet so we just couldn't stay in there and keep disturbing everyone trying to listen. That's why they were there. So I didn't hear really any of the story because Riley and I were walking all over the library. Then Julie got there and picked up Riley and took her home. I forgot to ask her if she had any cash on her so we could buy the book so after it was over Grace and I ran to the ATM and got some money and hurried back to have the author sign it before she left.

Today we had our rescheduled swimming with my Sister and her kids. Also my step-Mother came and of course my Aunt was there. We all had fun I think but it was just a lot of work and I was tired afterwards. Because of road construction it took us about twice the normal time to get home so we didn't have much time between swimming and softball practice. But we got there and we both made it through. I was really feeling it during the stretching let me tell you. I was worn out.

I named this post softball because of what I found out at practice tonight. Remember my last post where I mentioned that I wasn't so happy with my pitching at Grace's game on Saturday? Well, apparently I wasn't the only one as another coach on our team said that the coach from the opposing team asked her during the game if we wanted them to pitch to our team. Wow! Maybe I should end my pitching career now.

Remember Me?

Alright, so it may have been nine months since I last blogged, but believe it or not, we're all still here. Things are going well. Grace is finished with first grade which actually makes her sad. She just loves school and is not so happy that she's not going now. Hopefully that won't change too much as she gets older.

Julie and I have decided to give her a little "summer-school" over the summer by having her do some work that we give her each week so that she has something to do and to keep her up on her school skills. We don't want to teach her everything that she'll learn in second grade before she starts, just keep her skills up and help her be more ready for school when it starts up again at the end of August.

Oh, speaking of school, why do we have to pay a "registration" fee for our child's "public" education that we pay a LOT of taxes for? And why does this fee go up so much each year? I find it ridiculous. It's hard to plan how much money to save up each year if it goes up so much.

We're trying to plan a vacation for later in the summer before school starts again. We don't want to spend a lot of money which probably will also translate to not travelling very far. Unfortunately we haven't decided what to do exactly yet. We have ideas, but nothing is written in stone yet.

Grace is playing softball this spring and I am her coach. We just had our third game yesterday. Since they're so young and most of them are playing for the first time we don't keep score. They really are just playing to learn and have fun. So far it's been a lot of fun. I pitch to the girls and I have to tell you...I need to improve. Grace had vacation bible school this last week and so we were super busy all week and I never had a chance to practice pitching and it really showed during the game yesterday. Obviously I will need to keep up my practicing so as to maintain some type of consistency for the girls.

We had some big storms here on Friday and my Aunt and Uncle still have no power at their house. Unfortunately they really need electricity as they both use c-pap machines to help them breath at night and my Grandfather uses oxygen at night and those machines don't work without electricity. My Grandfather stayed with us last night so he'd be cool and so he could breath. But he was ready to go home today even though they are saying the electricity won't be back on until sometime Monday.

While Grandpa was with us we took him and my Dad and step-Mom out for dinner last night for Father's Day. We went to Outback Steakhouse. We don't go there very often and they've really changed the menu. I have to say I wasn't so impressed. The bloomin' onion was good and the sample I had of the cheese fries was really good, but the food just wasn't the same. I'm not sure why that is, but I'd say we won't be going back anytime soon.