So looking back to my previous entry over a month ago, I guess it's time to recap where things are at here.
The house situation. Ugh pretty much sums it up. It's moving along but with everything else that has to be done just for our daily lives (therapy for Jon, activities for all the kids, various other things) things have been going very, very slowly. There is progress to report tho. We have our permits in order for all the work to be done and will hopefully start the roofing process next week. There is no more dry rot in the boys' bathroom. We finally got the cabinet layout correct so we can start figuring out dates on when that will come in and we can install the cabinets and get dates for the counter installation. Once we have those dates, we can start scheduling someone to come out and move the 220 line into the kitchen for the new stove and to install the microwave hood. We have paint in the house for the entire painting job and are trying to chose between two palettes for the exterior so we can get those approved. The carpet has been delivered to the installers but we are hung up on that because the rooms to be carpeted are nowhere near ready yet. Part of that hinges on Mark getting his home office cleaned out which hasn't happened yet (and has been put on hold yet again due to sh*t hitting the fan at work). However the master closet has been totally cleaned out and walls scrubbed and I'm starting to prep it for painting. Hoping to get to that tomorrow. I'm also working on getting things prepped in the master bathroom for the walls. Once those are done, I can at least do the closet in the office since that has gotten cleaned out which will let us start moving a few things around. Sooooo much to be done! And there is still more packing and decluttering. I'm sure I sound like a broken record but I keep reminding everyone that I've been saying for years that we should be doing the decluttering part of it to make this part easier. Oh well.
Too add to the fun in all this, a gas leak was discovered in the line that goes from the meter to our house today so we are now currently without gas to the house so no hot water and no stove/oven. Can we say Chinese take-out for dinner? Yeah, thought so! I'm looking at it as a glimpse of what my life will be like during the kitchen remodel.
So that's all the news with the house. I'm going to start taking before pictures soon (now that we've gotten at least some of the stuff out of the house LOL) and will do some during and of course, after.
When I last left off blogging I had just found out from the dentist that on top of all the bad teeth I have, my gums now require care as well. Since then I've gone in for a full consult based on the examination to get my treatment plan and estimate of costs. After being told by numerous dentists they didn't even know how to fix some of my teeth (yeah, I wonder how those people got out of dental school too) and then being told by our prior dentist that I was looking at either crowns or bridges for all of my teeth I'm sure you can imagine the kind of bill I was expecting to see. One that had lots and lots of zeros and likely cost more than my current house is valued at.
I couldn't have been more surprised or more wrong. Apparently I'm working with a real dentist who has not only a heart but a clue as well. I wasn't aware there was such a thing but by chance we found one. I got the bill and took a brief look at it and saw that the total was about $7K after insurance. I figured it was only for the first stage of treatment since he had discussed doing things in stages. I started talking to the booking manager and my jaw dropped. She was pointing to teeth on the treatment sheet that I had been told had to be removed and bridged previously. I shook myself and tried to wrap my head around what she was saying but I wasn't totally coherent. I kept hearing talk of "fillings" while she was pointing to those teeth. I think I grunted something barely coherent about not being sure what she was talking about since those needed to be bridged. Then she went over the treatment plan more slowly with me.
There wasn't a single crown or bridge on the entire sheet.
Yeah, go back and read that again. I had to have her repeat it several times myself.
No crowns.
No bridges.
All teeth except the four broken ones fixed with fillings.
Say what?!
I was torn between being speechless and crying. I seriously could not believe it. This dentist believes in doing what is best for the patient's oral health, not what is easiest for him or makes him the most amount of money. We are talking about having my entire mouth healthy sometime next year at the latest. The only bridge or implant work I'll need is to replace two faulty crowns and two broken teeth. That's it. Can I just say that I'm totally thrilled with our new dentist! If you are in the HMB area and looking for a new dentist, Dr. Ollerton is the man to go to.
Mark and I have been promoted in KSW a few times since my last post. At this point we are now Dahn Bon Nims which means "black belt candidates". We no longer have monthly colored belt testing but instead will be testing every 3mos starting in May. It will take about 2yrs of consistent training and testing to achieve 1st degree black belt but it's a challenge we are both looking forward to.
Christopher is continuing to do well at CSM apparently pulling A's and B's in his classes. He's also been developing more of a social life as well. He's gotten involved with the competitive gamer's group at CSM and has regular study groups for 2 of his classes as well. We recently found out that one of our KSW instructors (and the daughter of the owner of our dojang) is a big gamer and has a weekly gaming group late Friday nights so he's going to that as well now. I frequently here about what some of the other kids at school are thinking and doing and hear about "I need to txt Shane" or "Jessica said". So great that his being young is not causing problems for him there but on the contrary he seems to be doing better at starting to make friends there with kids just a little older than him than he has been in places with kids his age. We are still working on his attitude around the house but we know that's going to be a work in progress for a while. At least there is progress being made even if it is 2 steps forward and 1 step back. In time we'll get there.
Matthew is working hard to get ready for the state Algebra test so that has meant an almost cessation of his other subjects for the next two weeks. I was able to sit in on his guitar lesson for the first time this week. He has come so far in the last year and a half. His instructor was saying that he's really gotten over the first major hurdle in playing with his last song (Birthday by The Beatles) and was impressed because he had figured out the ending on his own (M said it was easy because it was just a slightly different order and timing but still). The song he is choosing next (Behind Blue Eyes by The Who) will have him doing several things he hasn't done before and the instructor said it would definitely push him to the limits but in a good way and that he would learn a lot with it.
Jonathan is getting very excited about his upcoming birthday (go figure). Now that we have changed up his lang arts and gotten him some help in his writing we are seeing lots of improvement which is great. He finished up 4th grade math last month and is already about 1/2 way through 5th grade math. He's very likely to have that finished by the end of the school year which also thrills him no end. We have a new deal where he is the head chef on Tuesday nights (most weeks at least) and I am his sous chef. He comes up with the menu and I do the shopping and then he has to do the majority of the work in preparing it. He is continuing to love cooking and looks for every opportunity to do so. Today he baked cookies from scratch completely by himself. He ran into a little problem because the butter had been frozen instead of room temperature but he figured out a solution to the problem and the cookies came out wonderfully! He also has a new friend, one of his swim classmates and the son of his instructor. They can talk for ages about games and Jon had a sleepover at his house earlier this month which went really well. They are just a few months apart in age and both homeschooled. I'm so thankful that he's making some more friends his age locally.
Nicholas is growing by leaps and bounds lately and I really wish he would stop or at least slow it down a bit. I know it won't happen so instead I'm just very thankful that he continues to love to cuddle up on my lap and tells me that he'll be mine until he's a daddy. LOL He has really gotten into kite flying lately thanks to his friends Greer and Adam. They are in the clay class before Jon and Matt and Adam's older brother is in their clay class so we all hang out and generally walk at the beach while the older ones are in class. He's also made a wonderful new friend Max. Max is in Little Ninjas and also his swim class. In fact, when the swim schedules got switched around instead of going and swimming with Jon at the same time (you know, to make MY life easier), we are now there for an hour so he can swim Max the class before Jon. *sigh* I'd complain but he's so happy and let's face it, it's not like I can get my kids to do any schoolwork or useful production out of them before we go anyway. LOL Max also lives close to KSW so we've been having regular playdates at their house after Little Ninjas while Jon is in class. Makes for a much nicer way to pass the time than inventing errands to run. (Ok and it helps that I like Max's mom too LOL).
So I think that pretty much catches things up around here (except for Nico's bday post which will be coming soon). Posts will still likely be few and far between for a bit but hopefully with lots of pictures of the changes going on here!
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