In ten years we have moved a handful of times, and always found ourselves back in South Florida, in the home we are in now. We’ve been through two major illnesses, two deaths. We’ve seen so much more happiness – babies being born, grades being graduated, events being celebrated.

I am not really feeling over philosophical today. I am not reminiscing. I find myself looking forward, which is, I suppose, a good thing. In the past six months, Dor has been able to go play on his own, help look after his siblings, help around the house more. It’s a goodness. We picked up a cheap phone for him yesterday, mainly because he is off in the neighborhood on his own and doesn’t always hear when we shout for him. When I was ten I was all over too, with no phone, but times, they are a changing. Yep, growing up.

I lied. I guess I am waxing philosophical. Ten years down, another seven or eight to go before it’s time for college. I just sent two off to college… the next eight years will fly by. I need to stop, slow down, and cherish them. I bet you do too.

We had an 8:30 AM appointment, which we arrived promptly on time for. At 9:30 AM we were led into another waiting area to wait on the x-rays to be taken. Around 10 we were taken back for the x-rays. They did Dorian’s first, then took Eshiva to yet another room for hers, and something like 15 minutes later did Malachai’s x-rays.

While they were doing E & M they were cleaning Dorian’s teeth. Michael stayed with Eshiva while they checked over her crown and whatever else they did. They finally took M’s x-rays and led us over to the other side for his cleaning. Dor was wrapping up, and then we waited another 10 – 15 minutes for the assistant to come to M. The entire time there were two assistants standing around doing abso-fucking-lutely nothing. o_O

The gal tries to clean Malachai’s teeth. They only had mint. No one in my house likes mint. Mal and I especially. It burns. It hurts. I don’t have a word for it, but it isn’t comfortable. So I am trying to keep his mouth open so this lady can clean his front teeth at least and he is biting me, but not hard enough to really hurt. I finally gave up.

Dorian has no cavities, he’s a-ok, just gotta come back in 6 months for another cleaning. Oh, did I mention they didn’t fucking clean his teeth? He still had tartar and crap all over them. I am going to see if my dentist will see him. She gets mine squeaky, even with the braces on.

Malachai has a cavity so bad in one of his lower teeth they need to remove it. WHich means they need to remove the same tooth on the other wise. Plus a filling in an adult tooth. Fuck. They don’t do sedation dentistry. They give out a cup of Benedryl (oh, excuse me, a cup of Diphenhydramine – I’m not an idiot doc, it’s fucking Benedryl), which makes my kid bounce off the walls, not relax. He can’t be gassed b/c it screws up his already screwy sensory issues and I refuse to have him papoosed. So I called the ortho, who is amazing. I got the name and number for the dentist she takes her special needs kid to and in a few short weeks I will be shelling out 110$ plus 33$ per x-ray for a consult about having the above work done.

This is the third time they have suggested I pull teeth, by the way. What is going on that the only solution is to pull my kids teeth out?

Eshiva needs a crown replaced, because it fell off. Yes. You read that right. It fell off. How did it fall off? I have no idea. My bet is that it wasn’t on well to begin with. She also has three cavities. The soonest we could get in for that work? December 27. Yep. But I should feel free to call back, every couple of weeks to see if there is an opening.

I will be calling the insurance to find another dentist, but thanks for the overwhelming lack of help.

I grabbed my purse to use the restroom and apparently I have walked out of that office enough times that the first thing the counter gal asked was if there was a problem.

Maybe if they didn’t treat us like we don’t have a clue and treated my kids with some respect and acted like they could handle special needs I wouldn’t have to storm out so much. Hell, today I’d have settled for being seen on time.

What is July 25?

My sister died on July 25, 2003.

So it’s been seven years. And this year was it. I didn’t post about it. Well, I’m posting about it now, after the fact, because it didn’t occur to me to post about it then.

An internet acquaintance of mine recently lost her sister and I wanted so badly to tell her that no matter how awful it it now, it won’t be forever. I didn’t, because it wasn’t what she wanted or needed to hear. I told her I know it’s awful, and nothing I could say could make it better, and that was the simple truth and the best thing I had to say.

Apparently seven years is the magic “not forever” number. Who knew?

It might help that I don’t have anything else to associate the date with. September 16 will never come and go. It’s a scant two days after my eldest son’s birthday. She held on long enough to see him turn six, and that was that. Maybe it will come and go? Maybe it’s just still too soon, too fresh. I still can’t think of her without wanting to cry, my eyes stinging and tearing up. Maybe in 2013 September 16 will come and go and just be another day of celebration in Dorian’s Birthday-Week.

It’s a pretty small device. I’d like something a bit larger for him to keep it in so it doesn’t disappear again. Ideas? I was tempted to knit a cord around his headphone cord (big over the ear types, not tiny in the ear types) and put a little bag on the end so as long as the headphones are plugged in, the mp3 played would just sit in it’s case, attached to the headphones.

That is more work than I want to do today. Knitting a tube around a headphone word just isn’t on my list of “fun” for things to do today.

So… ideas? I can’t exactly superglue it to his arm

I had my first crush in that bowling alley. I had my first lots of things in there lol

When I turned… 10 or 11 mom got transferred to another alley in Randallstown (the one on my arm is the Pikesville alley) which I also spent a ridiculous amount of time in. However, the one on my arm is duckpins, not tenpins. I played a lot of pool in them too.

Because you all had to know that.

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I remember the indoor “flea” market they had on bowling nights and the junk I had to have. They used to let me pick the winning 50/50 raffle ticket.

My first real job was as a short order cook at Timonium FairLanes.

Aunt Jackie used to tell me how when I was a baby in the stroller… she remembered one time I was playing with something on one side of the stroller – a nail or something holding it together. I turned to the other side to see if there was one on that side too. She used to tell me she knew I’d be a smartie from that alone. One time Erin’s chair flipped backwards (the Maclarren stroller – it used to do that a lot – unsafe thing!) and she remembered running down from the other end of the alley, mom right behind her, to pick her back up.

Funny things that pop up into mind sometimes.

Let’s back up. I walk in, and tell the guy what I need and give him the make/model and lo and behold he actually has one in stock. Really? Then he goes on to comment about how expensive it is. Something like, even more surprising is the cost. I said I wasn’t surprised, I expected it to be stupid expensive. I was low.

That freaking decal was 30.06$ after tax.

If it wasn’t so uncomfortable to drive without it in there (it’s an inlay) or if I could have found something aesthetically pleasing to put in there I could have done it cheaper. Oh well.

So we leave the dealership 30$ poorer. Then on the way home we are headed down Wiles. We go through a school zone at 15 MPH. Nothing unusual. We get out of it and speed up. Suddenly we’re stopped again. There is a dog running down the middle of the road. Of course no one wants to hit the cute dog. It turns off down a side street (going home?) and another car turns off with it (to rescue it?) and we go on our merry way.

Just a weird morning.

He did basically my entire lower arm (the actual alley part of the piece), a bit on the inside mid-arm and the pins up on the outside under my elbow. Photos will come later after I unbandage and wash up. It took… two hours? I dunno. I wasn’t paying attention. We had to clean up a little before 11, so less than 2 hours really. Maybe 1.5 lol He is headed to Miami to take his yearly cross-contam class and will hopefully be home before I have to take Dor to the ortho.

I am sooooo happy. You have no idea.

Malachai is home sick (poor baby ) and I’ve got a london broil defrosting. No big plans for tonight actually. Today is the first day I’ve felt well in a week, so I am going to try and pull something together. At least I’ve got apples and tons of honey!