Metal-less Mouth

We Started with This

Spent 2 Years and 4 months as a Metal Mouth

 Definitely worth all the hard work!!!

Then we stopped by Daddy's work to show off her pretty wireless (almost) teeth.

Hannah now has two permanent retainers that are glued on the back of her teeth (which she said feels like when you eat a green banana) and also has a clear retainer that she will first wear all the time, then just at night.  We are so proud of how good she was with her braces....she didn't even break a single wire or bracket.  Hopefully she will thank us eventually for riding her so hard about it.  She really handled them very well....she had to have a lot of work done and rarely complained!!

Congratulations Hannah....I hope you have lots of opportunities to show off that pretty smile!!!

All About Matt

Sometimes the baby of the family doesn't get the attention they deserve.  They are rarely the "first" to accomplish something...they get hand-me-down clothes.  Their picture isn't taken as much as the first baby!! 

Matt is our third child....second boy.  Although he makes sure we never forget him, he does get lots of hand downs from Davis and hasn't been the first at much.  So I decided to dedicate an entire post to some of his recent achievements. 

Last Saturday, Matt finally started hitting the ball at his baseball game.  He is still in coach pitch and Coach Nelson finally found his sweet spot and he went 3 for 3.  At the end of the game, Matt was awarded the "Game Ball" from Coach Rob.  Yesterday at his game, Matt went 3 for 4 and even slid into home!!!

Congrats Matty!!

 A week before that we went up to Calhoun for the Inaugural race at the track that had been closed for quite awhile and then was purchased by new owners.  They completely redid the track and we headed up there after baseball for the race.  Both the boys raced and did quite well.  They haven't raced in over a year, but they seemed to have a really great time.  Davis came in 5th in his class and Matt came in 1st (he was the only one in his class, but he rode his heart out!!).

Thursday night it was just him and I at his practice because everyone else went to Hannah's softball game.  He was very excited when he found out it was just us for the evening (which made my heart swell).  After practice, I asked him what he wanted to eat.  Of course he said McDonald's :).  When he pulled out his toy (a Lego car - I think they must be between themes and getting rid of some old stuff), he was very excited and exclaimed "This is really cool but it will look even better when you put the stickers on it". 

Anyone that spends much time with me knows how much I LOVE to put the stickers on things and my little boy loves me enough to not even consider putting the stickers on himself and letting me do it.....oh how I love this boy!!!

I have a teenager in my eye....

My silicone buckle in my left eye turned 13 today....

I wish I never needed it.....

but I am grateful that I had it when I needed it to fix my detached retina!!

Getting clean in my own room

We have not taken a shower in our master bathroom for years because we had water that was leaking in the basement from problems in the shower seat (builder's work) and then we had a problem with the shower door.  We have been showering in the other bathroom on our main level.  Our plan was to get a new shower enclosure, fix the seat...then the whole jobless thing happen.  I took off the cultured marble seat top and side a LONG time ago and never did anything with it.  I finally got mad a couple weeks ago and tore out the drywall and pulled the frame out.  I replaced the damaged wood and Pete installed the drywall.  We sealed the crap out of it before replacing the marble pieces (there was a lot more damage than we had expected and in a different spot than we knew about).

We were trying to attach the front (side) piece of marble, which was warped from the beginning (part of the leak issue) and it BROKE....in three pieces.  We checked on a replacement piece and it was a bit more pricey than we were expecting.  So I starting looking into other options.  I was thinking that we could tile it.  I have never tiled before, but I was willing to take a stab at it.   I wanted to find something that didn't look out of place, since the rest of the shower is cultured marble.  I found what I wanted and I actually completed it.  I have added a shower curtain to replace the shower door until we can afford to replace the shower enclosure.

It is wonderful to get up and walk to my bathroom and turn on the shower!!! 

The inside tiles match the wall color

We installed new hardware as well

I am pretty proud of my first tile job!!!

 I did learn a few things from this job

• Use cement board - would have cut down on some extra steps
• Make the mortar a little bit "wetter" so when you get to the end it isn't so dry.
• Use Silicone "caulk" from the beginning, it works best and won't have to be redone
• Use gloves when using above product so one doesn't have to use gasoline to get it off your hands.
• Have faith in your ideas and your ability to do something new!!!!