Eating Bon-Bons and Watching Soaps

If I were a stay-at-home mom, how would I spend my days? Nathan is off to school full time (not now, he's still fighting the flu--hence the time to sit and ponder on the keyboard). Michael goes twice a week and next year it will be three times a week. The route to school and back home takes roughly an hour. Seriously. That would be twice daily. Piddling around shops would just get me into trouble. Piddling in the kitchen would just get me into trouble. We'd not be so low on dog food. I'd probably have treatments on our windows. The drainboard wouldn't be stacked so high with idle pans and kitchen gear. Laundry chores could be completed a little bit per day--and folded and put away. I'd dust. Ok, maybe not. I ought to, though. It's embarrassing. I've never been one for soaps although the drama is hysterically funny--in a mocking, sarcastic way. My days at home with gimpy have given me some time to catch up on house work. I love keeping house. When I work, I get by with things being just tidy. I allow myself the excuses of being exhausted from the day or just not wanting to take the time to do something. I'd have all day to think about packing the next day's lunches. I would not forget the napping paraphernalia for little bit's school the next day. I'd sit and snuggle with him, if he'd let me, and nuzzle the top of his head. It's easy to say that I would have all my ducks in a row, all dust bunnies obliterated.
When working full time, I do make time to complete the chores and cuddle with my kids. It just seems so scheduled and haphazardly thrown into a rigid routine. However these things fit into my life, taking care of my family and home are my most prized purposes in life.

Shoo Flu!

Mid-day on Thursday, I got a call from Nathan's school nurse who informed me that he had a low grade fever, but needed to go home. She seems very, very nice. I've talked via phone with her just a few times, and she seems like she is just a genuinely kind and thoughtful person. Good vibes: I'm glad she's at the helm of the "if my kid is sick or hurt" ship. I half way dismissed his fever as a whim, perhaps his sinuses were acting up. We got home, he rested, but we already planned for him to stay at Barbara's house the next day instead of going to school. Michael would spend the day with my mom to somewhat quarantine his immune system. Nathan's fever got higher and higher throughout the next day, and he became more and more lethargic. His fever hovered around 102, 103. Yikes. This isn't my kid, is it? We've been so very fortunate that the boys maintain excellent health. I left school early, picked Nathan up, and met Nick at the pediatrician. They were so kind to get us an appointment in one hour (and we were seen even before that). I do not have to rely on my pediatricians often at all. We keep up with well check visits, but that's about it. It is so comforting to know that they're vigilant when a time of need does come. I would've hated to see the actual germ vapor floating around in that place, though. Toxic kiddo sputum vapor. Gross!
He indeed had Influenza A, and a temp of 103.1. My poor sweet boy. He complained not even once. His eyes were droopy and glassy, his face was flushed, and looked to be in a fog. Since we got home from the doctor, he has made steady improvement. Just a little at first, but this afternoon we are seeing signs of the antiviral medicines significantly working. He dislikes the medicines, but once again, he doesn't complain. Knowing that we'd do anything in the world to make him feel better, we still scoffed at the $85 price tag for one of the medicines. Then we had to chuckle because insurance had knocked that down from over $120! Priceless becomes the Tamiflu when it brings back even the slightest energy to my son, though. He is not groggy and lifeless. When we told him that kite-flying wasn't really an OK activity for today, he asked to do his homework sheet from school! What a determined little learner!
What I've been reminded of in this experience (once again) is how much I depend upon our parents. Michael spent yesterday with my parents on my mom's off-work day, he spent the night at Barbara and Odis's (after she had spent quite some time decontaminating the Nathan-areas of her house), and he's back at my parents' house for today and tonight. Barbara cared for a sick Nathan yesterday, she picked both boys up early the day before when all of this began. They don't complain, they change around or alter their schedules, they pick up extra food, they just don't bat an eye when it comes to helping out. Nothing. Nothing that I could say or do would ever express the amount of gratitude I have for them all. So, from the trenches of this health catastrophe, I become humble. I am fortunate that someone developed drugs to make people feel just a little bit better when riding the course of the flu. I am fortunate that I am surrounded by health care professionals who jump to my assistance. I am fortunate that my workplace is sensitive and supportive of me being a mom and wife first and an educator second. I am fortunate that people are passionately devoted to my children. It is quite humbling.

Reflections from the Dental Chair

Flossing CAN be bad for you!
I should know.
One thing led to another and ultimately I was one less filling than I had been two seconds before. Yuck. Grody. This wasn't happening, I hoped. Who cared about the stupid Super Bowl game anyway. With my escalating status of freaking out, I glanced over at Nick who had this rabid dog, vulture-ish look on his face that was mixed with empathetic reassurance. He knew. I knew. It would have to be fixed, and he could now fix it! One good thing...it wasn't hurting. I would make it until the morning. In all of my wildest dreams, I absolutely NEVER (ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER) pictured my knight in shining armor coming in the form of a dentist with really sharp, pointy things, begloved, and decked out in surgical garb. Ever.
There was no doubt that I wanted Nick to fix my tooth, though. He finagled a plan with a dean, professors, and the school clinic to get me swapped on the schedule with a mannequin that he would've otherwise been working on. Two timer! HA! Come to find out, I would be the only human patient for anyone in that clinic that day--me and a bunch of dummies--YAY for ME!
I will always say that I would rather give birth than be in a dental chair. For Nick to have me as his first human guinea pig, to manage my anxiety (Me? Anxiety?), to have to focus on a SUPER complicated filling repair (according to me, it was darn near life threatening), and stay composed--the man is my hero!
In between all of the injections and gawd-awful drill noises, dropping the pokey things down my throat (HA! Nope, just kidding), setting tooth clamps and wedge placements, scraping and spooning (not as in a cereal spoon, I quickly learned), there were moments that I would just watch him. I could see corners of his eyes poking around from behind the magnifying loupes. Those are the same eyes that I looked into on the day we started dating, the day we became husband and wife, and the days our boys were born. Yes, my knight in shining armor comes with dental surgical garb and wickedly pokey instruments. But, I just cannot express in words how proud of him I am.

A Few Pictures

Nick, Michael, and Nathan reading a bedtime story. Michael flexing his muscles in the mirror before his bath. He's so very, very cute.

January 29, 2009

Tomorrow will mark one week that I have had my Invisalign trays. The first couple of days, they were very uncomfortable. My jaw ached and my teeth just hurt! It was weird because it would be one single tooth for a while, then another tooth in a totally different area and so on--like teeth-hurting-musical-chairs. I chalked it up to the fact that they've not really moved at all since they came in when I was like ten. I chewed really gingerly--but still chewed, mind you--and each day got much better. After about day four, there was NO achiness, and my teeth were adjusting well. My mouth is dry a LOT, but I do talk a LOT. Dr. Hanis said these would be like training wheel trays. The second day was the worst. On top of sore teeth, there was a piece of plastic shrapnel jabbing the daylights out of the inside of my mouth. I have a lot invested in these babies and was hesitant to do anything. But it hurt and the point of the trays versus the metal brackets was to avoid this problem. Come to find out, it was just a little flake of excess plastic and I barely brushed and off it came. SO much better. I'm very delicate. I've already noticed some teeth moving which I guess is the point--hopefully it's not all psychological. My school kids didn't even notice them. I had been talking about them since August and I think they gave up on me actually getting them. They ask me daily if I still have them in. Yep.

I took a picture of the trays, really for my own documentary to watch as things proceed. I'm sorry if they're eeew and blehh to anyone, but I'd be glad to share some of Nick's dental magazine images with you and this would seem like pre-K show and tell. My snacking regimen has been kicked to the curb which depending on how I look at it, that could be a good or bad thing. So far I am a happy customer, though.

Long Live the Queen...Where'd She Go?

Due to technical difficulties (Are there really technical difficulties, or is that the constant and we are just overjoyed when things actually work when they're supposed to?), my class and I were forced to watch the inauguration on a teeny tiny projector screen with super faint volume. Am I glad I didn't have to watch it from afar in frigid temperatures?--yes. I guess I shouldn't complain. We got about every fifth word of the whole shabang.

The pomp and circumstance fizzled. We waited around to see the parade (which I thought would be before the luncheon, but I misread the schedule). That wasn't happening any time soon, and we were preparing for our own lunch.

In the trudge back to the desks, one of my students blurts out with the most innocent of intentions, "Where's the Queen? Where'd the Queen go in all of this?"

Being a lover of history, being an educator, being a mother, and being an advocate of kids knowing basic knowledge and facts I wanted to crawl into a hole. Some of my disgust mixed with dumbfounded sarcasm and I answered, "Where IS the Queen? Where'd she go? Where WAS she throughout this ceremony?

Eyebrows wrinkled, lips pursed and went lopsided. Silence. Thinking. Just as the eyebrows were starting to twitch to the other side, someone else hesitantly spoke up, "I----I don't think we HAVE a Queen, do we Mrs. Cobb?"

2008 in Review

2008 in Review
I am two days late, nearly, with my yearly reflection, but that seems to be appropriate. I have such good intentions of keeping up with everything, but it just doesn’t pan out that way all of the time. 2008 was a year of work, schedules, and cherishing ALL moments together at home—because those are what make life WONDERFUL!

Nick just finished his third semester of dental school. Woo-hoo! Over the summer I was seeing his “one year down, three to go” as NOT a monumental thing, but really in this journey, we were HALF WAY FINISHED! People ask Nick all the time how long his dental school spans. Four years. HOWEVER…if one is on the transforming-from-an-engineer-to-a-dentist plan, including the leveling courses, application time, waiting for acceptance, waiting to begin school, and then the years of school, it is SIX years. Yes, SIX. Twelve semesters. A good thing about where we are right at this very moment, Nick just finished semester number seven. We are on the downhill slope. We still have a lengthy road to travel, but it is refreshing to know that there is an end in sight. One bad thing about him finishing is that we do not know where we want to live upon completion of his DDS. I guess we know where we want to live, but unfortunately those places are not the same! We’ve been pretty nomadic over the last ten years, but it has always been our desire to settle somewhere, firmly plant roots, and live for many, many years. Choosing the exact location does seem to be the biggest and most polarized debate that we’ve ever had to ride out.

Nathan is half way finished with kindergarten. Yikes! He reads, he “transforms” into these cartoon aliens, he entertains his brother (who is not always the most easily-entertainable toddler), he wonders, he investigates, he sings and sings and sings, he computes, he helps, he sings some more, and he plays tirelessly. He doesn’t plan for his house in Colorado hardly at all anymore, but he is always thinking and changing and growing. He is tall and lean. He loves infomercials. He is a fine older brother. Sometimes Michael intentionally and unintentionally pesters the dickens out of Nathan and I am so fortunate that Nathan continues to have strength, control, and patience when working with his little brother.

Michael is VERY two-and-a-half. He wants to uppy, but he wants down at the same time. He wants a poptart cut into pieces, but shrieks after all the cuts are made. He decides upon a show, then squeals to change it immediately. Aaah, he tests everyone’s limits and then pushes just a liiiiittle bit more. I could use a little less drama from him, but I wouldn’t trade him for the world. He is learning to be polite and says “thank you mommy.” His hair is straight and silky, and smells SOOOO good. Lately he has discovered the COMPUTER, and makes it VERY clear when he wants to play Starfall. He snuggles with me when it is cold or rainy outside, and still lounges with me in the rocking chair for nightly stories. He sings parts of little songs—the words that he remembers—and the voice that may have been screeching the moment before emits the sweetest little melodies. Sure, he is opinionated, persnickety, and stretches us all to our limits and beyond, but he is an absolutely precious and darling little person.

Just two days after Christmas, we loaded up the boys, two giant suitcases, a port-a-crib, a food box, two laundry baskets full of toys, a laptop, my fruit bag/purse, six coats, a toiletry bag, and I am sure something else and drove to Lubbock for three nights. Once Nick and I gave up on having our own agenda and catered more toward the boys, we had a decent time. Kids just aren’t all that interested in so many nostalgic drives up and down memory lanes. I can’t imagine why. Parts of Lubbock have changed a great deal. The southwest is exploding with everything that comes along with new freeway construction. Our houses were painful to see, especially the Norfolk house. I could ramble on about how it ripped my heart out to see both boys walking up and down the sidewalk WITH STICKS, but I will refrain. We got to see Mrs. Turner who had turned 93 just the day before we visited. She was especially glad that we brought the boys by for a visit, but was especially sad to see us go…as we were sad to leave her. She is not well, but she is a dear friend. The visit was special. We zipped in and out for a visit with Roland and Juanice because of their cats. They, too, will always be considered dear friends to us. Their daughter and her family were just leaving to return to Austin, so I was glad to see them all. The night that we were packing up to return home the next morning, I got an e-mail from Josh. We hadn’t seen him in 6 years, and he had made contact with me just that night. I shot off another e-mail about how we were in Lubbock for the FIRST time since we left, but that we were leaving for home in the morning. True friends will go out of their way to make a visit work. He, his lovely wife, and two darling little daughters drove in the wee hours of the morning from Plainview to meet us for breakfast before our departure. With some people, you can go years apart, but come together and visit like there was no span of separation. We reminisced and wow-ed at how time had changed our jobs, grown our families, and aged us! We swapped the little information that each of us had about other friends from that era.

Nick and I, in all of our tribulations with this dental journey, have remained strong. I am so thankful that we share SO much. We have such a deep history with each other, and we have such a bright future together. At least we dream about what is yet to come. We work especially hard to make our boys’ lives just a little bit better than our own lives have been. That’s tough because we have very privileged lives. I don’t know what 2009 has in store for us all, but the anticipation is exciting! It’s two nights after the big hoopla, and people are still setting off fireworks!—I guess there are others who are two nights late for something also!