Happy Birthday Todd

My children LOVE birthdays and birthday parties. We aren't party goers except for birthday parties and they think EVERYONE, no matter how old you are, should have a party. So, when I told them last weekend that Uncle Todd's birthday was yesterday, they wanted to know where his party was. Since he is working in Verona now, my mom decided we should meet for lunch. When I picked Carson up from school, we went to Creative Cakes and bought cupcakes for his party and then met he, his wife Marilynn, and two of their three children, Jack and Mari-Todd, along with my mom at Harvey's. My mom carries her camera everywhere, so she had to get a birthday picture of Uncle Todd and his birthday guest. Here we are:)

Thank You God......(the teeth are out)

Well the teeth, yes two of them, are finally out! Vince decided Tuesday night that it was time for the teeth to come out. He had tied a piece of dental floss around one of them the previous two nights to get Carson adjusted to string hanging from his tooth. Since I had already made it clear that I did not want to be the one who had to be responsible for pulling teeth, I let him do his deal. Anyway, when the actual tooth pulling was to occur on Tuesday, things did not go as smoothly. I tried really hard to stay out of the way but have any of you mothers ever tried to do this when your child is BEGGING you to intervene???? It's AWFUL. So, finally after I had suggested Vince and Carson pray themselves up for this and they had, I had to step in. I have to say, things did not get any better. I think it all started when Vince gave the string a yank and it came off the tooth, with the tooth still in the mouth. By now, Carson is PARANOID! like I have never seen him. All I could think was, this cannot be the FIRST of TWENTY!!! and we've messed it up already. I have to say by the time we did get to bed, Carson was crying, I was crying b/c he was crying, Emilia was crying b/c I was crying and Vince was just mad. Needless to say, we went to bed without pulling any teeth.
So, Wednesday rolled around, and as the day ticked on, I kept thinking to myself, I've got to get these two loose teeth out before Vince has a chance to do anything else to them, to save Carson :):) I tried to call his pediatric dentist to see what I needed to do, pull up, pull out, or come have them pulled. His office was closed. So I decided to call a friend of mine who is a dental hygienist and is married to a dentist. (how convenient) well, she wasn't home but he was (thank goodness) After explaining the whole ordeal and him thinking we are complete teeth idiots I'm sure, he suggested that I just bring Carson to his office that afternoon and have the teeth pulled. So, without explaining much to Carson and without telling Vince, we went. And with a very few tears shed, some tender words from the dental assistant and Mr. Sam, the teeth were pulled!!! And Carson thinks he'd like to have the other18 done the same way :):) When we got back home, he sat down at the door to take his shoes off and he said, "THANK YOU GOD!" he was so happy he had been such a big boy, had been praying about these teeth prior to the pulling, and was just so thankful they were finally out without anymore trauma from his parents trying to get them out.

Is the mess related to the fun?

O.K. for all you who know me well, know I try to stay organized. One thing I have to work on, now that I have children is that things aren't always where they should be and now b/c of them, "THEY SHOULDN'T BE". I say this to say that before kids, things had their places and that's where they stayed, now with kids, things still have their places but they don't always have to be there. What fun would they have if things couldn't be out of place/order?
Today, Carson had a friend over after school, who he had been asking when SHE could come for several weeks now. You may have seen pictures of Madelyn previously on the blog, she is a little girl who we are good friends with her mom and dad and that Carson is in Sunday School as well as kindergarten with. Since Vince left for snow skiing on Saturday (and is coming home today by-the-way) I told Carson that she could come over on Wednesday, the day daddy would be coming home and he has looked so forward to it. You will see some pictures I have posted with the mess.... a grateful mess that is, b/c I'm thankful my children have friends, are able to play, able to have toys, and able to have a good time. And I'm even thankful when I clean up the messes so that all the "things" are properly put back in there tubs, bins, buckets, etc. where they are suppose to be until the next time they are taken out!!! I just wondered if the messes had any reflection on the fun they had while playing with that particular thing. I kind of think they do :):)

June Carter & Johnny Cash

Last night, one of Carson's most favorite movies was on, Walk the Line. I can't even remember when he first saw it but I think it was right after Emilia was born and a friend of mine (Angel) let me borrow it b/c I had been wanting to see it. Anyway, he is really good at imitating whatever is on tv that he is watching, so he immediately goes and gets his guitar and starts playing with Johnny and soon after learns "portions" of Get rhythm... when you get the blues... and has sung it since. Last week his letter of the week for school was "G" and on Fridays they take a show and tell that starts with that letter. Of course, he took his guitar and even played!!! I was there for the 100th day of school party and it was hilarious. I asked him to share with the class his favorite guitar player, they all thought it would be Elvis, (did Elvis play the guitar?) but he quickly told them, no, Johnny Cash.
So last night, Walk the Line was on tv and of course, he was glued with guitar in hand. So when it got to the scene where he and June were singing together, I asked him if he wanted to pretend we were June and Johnny and he told me NO!! So, Emilia being right in the middle of everything, as she always is, ran to get a microphone, and although she hasn't learned all the Johnny Cash songs yet, she pretended to know them while Carson played. They crack me up!!