A family weekend

It was great - my brother John came out for a job interview (apparently it took like 15 minutes total once he got there and pays WAY more than he thought - so we will see) on Sunday afternoon and got to spent the night. Doesn't he look handsome! (hint hint to all my single friends out there...) My seesters Holly (newly from NYC) and Heather (and Emma) came to spent the night - SO much fun!!

He got to bond with the girls:

Please note that yes, we know Ashley looks bad.

She (Friday/Saturday) started using her tongue to move food around in her mouth (yah!) but, unfortunately, most of us learn this when we do NOT have TEETH. So our poor little monkey has two HUGE welts on her tongue and doesn't even want to open her mouth (maybe also because I haven't been opening my mouth for days on end, much, lately). She will drink a bottle of milk (hey, whatEVER it takes) (with drugs in it). Poor little plunko. She should be much better tomorrow - if not we will consult the doc again.

Ellie LOVED playing with Emma (yes, I know she looks like she is on major drugs here, but remember, she doesn't like to look at the camera) - they are so cute together. (Ashley's major joy today was laying on the couch, cluthing a sippy-cup).

Here is a pic of Ellie riding her bike down the street - she does good to stop right at that 'for sale' sign and come home.

I DO have pictures of Ashley alone, but they are on Josh's phone and he is working nights again this week so I will post them later.

Happy b-day Josh!

Today is Josh's birthday - I am so glad he was born! Here is a picture of his presents:
(Once I called him and told him I left a present in the driveway (I had scrubbed out the van) and he was like "A new truck!?!?" so I got him this truck (for one day only).
And a camping stove (so he can do all the cooking while we are out in the wilderness).

Also the totally cute train cake I made him:

We had some neighbors over to swim in the pool - VERY popular (now that it is warmer water) -but filling up buckets, old tires, spoons, etc with water and 'watering' the yard is still a FAVORITE pasttime of everyone. Ellie re-discovered this week that water + dirt = mud, so she has been stirring up mud pies.

Bugs and I worked on her garden/yard: A family that plays in the dirt together, stays together!

Bugs and I prep her 15 gallons of tomatoes for freezing (her garden soil is AWESOME!). She got like 7 quarts of tomatoes. (Maybe now she will invite us over one day for her famous lasagnas with FRESH tomatoes!)

Reading activity

If you live anywhere near Tooele, then you should be aware of this TOTALLY cool reading up-coming event involving reading, books and authors. Check it out!

http://us1.forward-to-friend.com/forward/show?u=3f99f067753c6d11e2bc3ffe9&id=d97adee5eb

FOUR hours!!

YAH!! Rejoice! Happiness! I am up to FOUR hours with the rubber bands OFF and then two hours on (and of course on at night). YAH YAH YAH!! I can talk! I can read stories to the girls! YAH!! Joy!


But I tried it on the way home (and talked to my mom and Heather- about an hour) and my mouth was TIRED! (yes, I know you are all laughing right now. I don't think my mouth has been tired of talking since I was like TWO). Anyway, it sort of makes sense, all those muscles, ligiments, tendons, etc. got stretched out and now they need exercise to get stronger in their new positions. Hum. Somehow I didn't think about all of this before we started the whole procedures. (Would I had done it anyway? I think so, but it is always nice to know what is coming up).


On Sunday, it literally poured rain here -there were sheets of raining coming down (it just doens't rain like that here in Tooele). It reminded me of the Indiana-growing-up rainstorms. Everyone went out and had a grand ol' time getting wet and enjoying the (cold) storm.


Happy Tuesday!

More Herron news

OK, tomorrow I am going private- but if you are my friend you should be able to see us still.

Thursday we went to Provo to see my seester Heather. And being the best seester ever she gave me the gift of ....time alone. We got there and she took off on the bike with the THREE girls in the trailer. They checked out the new park and had snacks. A big hit. Thank you for the nap!

Ellie is not afraid to get in our (freezing cold) swimming pool - you go girl! Althought I did get in this weekend and it was not AS cold as it has been. Hum.

The girls just love playing together. Here they are doing play-dough crafties:

And here they are in the tub (neither one would look at the camera):

Josh got us a little rotor-tiller for the weed-wacker. Here he is tilling up that side part of the lawn (that we have literally planted FOUR times so far with little success). But we figure if we water it EVERY day now, in the best grass-growing-time-of-the-year, we should get some grass and not just weeds.
This week for the first time EVER in our nine years of marriage, Josh and I, on our weekly shopping trip.....bought TWO gallons of milk! We think it will last us until our next shopping day:

Also we traded kiddo-watching with our neighbors for the Oquirrh Mountain temple dedication. We are also having yummy sweet-n-sout meatballs with garlic mashed potatoes and all-edge brownies - for dinner with them - yum! We could totally handle six kids - of course the house would constantly be a mess, hum.
Well, we are looking forward to a nice week. We are still 'tracking' our expenditures in our goal to get a realistic budget, so I am going to get my pass to the Red Butte Gardens (before the budget sets in) - who wants to go??? Also because Josh has to work nights on a test for the next two weeks and it will be good to have someplace to go now that it is getting a tiny bit cooler.

My head is not hurting as much - if I remember to take ibuprofen regularly. Drugs are good. Happy week!

Not yelled at

I did not get yelled at this week at the surgeon's. He said I was doing 'very good" (talking with my mouth shut). So yah. Next week I am up to FOUR hours with no rubber bands and then two hours with them on - yah! Here is a list of things I miss: popcorn, any cold cereal, toast, meat, most stuff. We've been eating a lot of rice lately. It is very mushy.

The girls are doing great. They love having our little preschool each morning. Ashley works on sounds and games and stuff. Today Ellie identified all the numbers and sorted them into piles.

Josh is back to working more 'normal' hours. We are trying to go to bed earlier. I am VERY happy to only have one class this month. It is like a vacation! I didn't have ANY job stress today! YAH!! But this evening I was downstairs lifting weights and the top bar fell on my head - and I have a big bump there. BUT it did NOT hit my JAW!! (most important).

We had our initial intake interview for another adoption last week. We are now in the 'paperwork process' where we fill out LOTS of papers and stuff. If it takes two years to adopt, then we figured we better get started now. Ellie and Ash are VERY excited to have a baby in our family. When we went to the agency, we told them we were going to talk to someone about getting a baby. When we left Ellie started crying and saying 'where is our baby?' Then she told the caseworker we wanted two babies, a boy baby and a girl baby. He said he would do what he could. We'd love to adopt again!

More updates

Sorry I didn't update yesterday, my head/face has been hurting a lot and I have been not thinking too good. Also, no pictures because my cell phone/camera died and I don't have a cable to get the pictures off the one I am using now. Will try to get some in a bit.

We are all doing fine. My FABULOUS friend, Erika, came to spend the night on her way to Education Week at BYU. We met at the singles branch in Indy - many years ago. Since then we had attended each others weddings and each collected two kids! She is AWESOME! I think talking so much with her is maybe why my head hurts.

Sunday we had stake conference and the girls were pretty good. Big naps.

Saturday we cleaned and shopped and picked up Erika and enjoyed being home.

Friday we did errands. Can't even remember what else.

Tomorrow I go back to the surgeon - hopefully I can have a few extra hours of 'mouth freedom' a day (no rubber bands).

Ashley REALLY enjoys dressing herself and going potty. Ellie is doing great with the potty and even is dry most nights. Yah! More when my head clears up.

Rest of the week

Monday we played at home and talked to the speech therapist.

Tuesday I had to appointments in SLC and, as you read, got yelled at by the surgeon. He could tell I had been talking with my mouth opened, because when he asked me how I was doing - I opened my mouth (oops). It was a long day.

Wednesday we had friends over to swim and play. It is fun.

Today I am, apparently, having job stress. We are going to get a new cable box because the old one puts dots on our TV - weird.

My dumb job

If you have been following my life, you know I have been teaching online for a private (for-profit) 'university' for about 5 years. It was pretty good work - I LOVE teaching communications- for pretty great money.

But recently new bosses were hired and they have made a lot of changes. For example, now weekly we have an 'audit' of all our classes - to make sure we are responding to emails, grading, etc. If I am not 'up to par' in every single area, then I get less classes the next month. Every week we are suppose to send out reminders to students who are not logging in/doing their homework (like in junior high). The stress and extra work has really tipped my hand in wanting to do this job.

I have been teaching college (at three different colleges) for about nine years. I am a GOOD teacher. But I really am thinking about leaving. I want my time to play with my girls. I want to be a homemaker - really and truly.

Friends who have left the work place - what should I do? What is good? Bad? ADVICE PLEASE!

We don't qualify!!!!

Usually those are words you do not want to hear. But when they are talking about if your kiddo qualifies for speech therapy - then you are ecstatic! Ashley is 'right on the border' for age-appropriate speech - she doesn't need therapy! It was GREAT! Mr. Mark came and did an evaluation on Monday. He said she is doing just fine and can even make some of the 'advanced' sounds. Go Ashley!

Yelled at

I was yelled at today by the surgeon for talking with my rubber bands on. Apparently, when they are on, I am not suppose to open my mouth AT ALL. So if I mumble a hello to you this week, please understand. Ugh. How we have to suffer to be beautiful.

Come play water games tomorrow at 11 a.m. - PB and J sandwiches for all!

Nice and cool here!

Yes, it was like inthe 50s here for two evenings! Yah cold fronts! Now it is suppose to be like 98 on Wednesday, oh well.

Friday we went to Logan. I got a new 'do AND new hair colors (it looks WAY WAY WAY better). So I am basically looking great. Josh and Danell took the plunkos to the fair and Josh got the girls all-you-can-ride-wristbands. The pics are on his cell phone, so I will load them tonight. Apparently everyone had a GREAT time. It was nice to catch up with several old friends and Danell and family.

Saturday we invited Jason, Heather and Emma over for a BBQ. It was very nice, cool weather and a good time was had by all. Their new car smells like...new car! It is nice. Heather and I had our annual girls only trip to the D.I. and Wally world - ALONE!

Sunday I played the organ and the piano for Primary. I like Primary. Had naps. Went to neighbors to play games and eat treats (sorry for the miscalulation on the sugar!).

Sometime this weekend Josh was emptying the pool (full of stuff from the huge windstorm) and the girls were filling up their little buckets and 'washing' their little car. CUTE!

X-Rays

We truly live in a miracle society. I mean, we can take pictures of your BONES from OUTSIDE! That is way cool when you think about it. The girls and I had a lovely morning at home with some pre-school and playing.


Around 1:30 we left for my 2:40 p.m. appointment with tooth-man. At 1:40 p.m. I was stuck in a 5 mile back up on a closed I-80 after a policeman shot and killed someone after a traffic stop. We SLOWLY make our way to a closed-for-reconstruction-road that they re-open for us (and all the other I-80 traffic after 3 hours). I get there only an hour late. We see the doc. I get to have 1 hour of freedom, 3 times a day this week! NO latex in mouth - makes tongue itchy (BAD). So I have real rubber bands. I am checking out the radio stations and even call my seester, Holly, in NYC to have her check the internet about road closures. No much news. So I take the back way home. SLOWLY. SLOWLY. SLOWLY.


The girls and I are GREAT travelers, but after spending almost 6 hours in the car today together, we were glad to get home and stretch our legs.


Here are the COOL X-rays of my mouth/head BEFORE and AFTER surgery. You can actually see (if you look close) the 10 mm new gap in my jaw. And now I have a chin! COOL!




And see how the teeth line up now, and the bottom front teeth aren't pushed up anymore! COOL!

Leaving open space

My honey has suggested that I leave the open space blogging. So I will in two days. If you send me your email, I will put you on the reading list. If I already email you, I will just try to add you in. Thanks!

Pictures

So when my mom came I did get some cute pictures which I will post here, for the future Herron scrapbooking:

My wonderful momma!

The girls tackle the swing set - they LOVE playing on it:

Our garden grows!

Sandbox is always fun for digging:

We contemplate life:
Grandma and Ellie bond:

Crooked teeths

Some people ask me: WHY did you get your jaw broken - on purpose? It is part of the braces, which were more of a 'requirement for future eating ability' and less about having straight teeth. I will did not mind having crooked teeths, they sort of made me, ME.

I have known for a lot of years that I would eventually need mouth work. But my insurance for my working years (at newspaper offices, can you believe it!) wouldn't cover it. But Josh's EXCELLENT insurance will, overall, cover just about half of the cost of everything, including the surgery. YAH!

When we started, my bottom front teeth could brush again the top of my mouth. They did not match up at all. Apparently without the top teeth to hit against them all the time, the bottom teeth keep pushing up and eventually WILL go through the top of your mouth - ouch! All those things were classified as 'severe' by the experts, so that tipped Josh's mind about it all. So there is our reasoning: need + good insurance!

These last two days have been pretty good. Here is the report on Tuesday:

Brushing your teeth after a week is GREAT! Like the toothpaste was all grey and gross afterwards. Anyway, it was nice. Now I still have rubberbands (which support the jaw in its new position while the bone heals) on all over my mouth. BUT I can take them off THREE times a day (for 30 minutes) to eat. I LOVE SOFT FOODS!!! There are a flipping LOT more soft foods than liquids!!! Over the next five weeks I will have them off for longer and longer periods. After about 4 weeks (when the bone is sturdy) then I can do stretching, etc. Right now my mouth opens about 1 inch -but you can get a LOT of food in one inch!!!

After picking up the girls (you rock Uncle Mike!) we went to the library. It was AWESOME! I had the girls locked in the double stroller, food to quiet them, and lots of time to browse. I think I came home with like 35 books:


Hello! I live here, you-know-where and my jaw is wired shut. What else am I suppose to do?

Wednesday we had some pre-school at home, friends over to swim. I made nice-nice with my boss. (Seriously, I will one day leave this job), had a YUMMY dinner (I really haven't been hungry since Tuesday!) Notice the J.unior Mints - candy you can eat with one inch of space and your tongue! Josh has had a cold and I think the rest of us have little ones. My face hurts a bit as all those muscles/soft tissue gets pulled around, etc. But life is good, ibprofen is good. Girls are in bed!

Happy anniversary to us!

Today is our 9th anniversary! WOWO!!!!!!!!! Yah for us! I remember going to the temple and our wedding and it was so happy. And I am happy today. I have the best husband in the world!

At like 3 a.m. Josh came home and climbed into bed.

The girls and I tried to be quiet this morning. After he got up we went and got some stuff for his work. On the way home he stops to run into a computer shop. We are waiting and waiting. And then he comes out with this......

I about had a heart attack of surprise! He was grinning and carrying my gorgeous flowers and I started grinning (which sent spasms through my poor cheek muscles - don't smile too much after jaw surgery) and had a bit of a tear-up. It was GREAT! heeehheh. I am the luckiest girl in the world!!! (there is a flower shop NEXT to the computer store!)

Also we had a fatality this week:

The blender bit the dust. Oh well, good thing my smart sweetie bought me a BACK UP blender ( a small one) before the jaw-cracking. He is SO smart! And he blends up a GREAT bowl of liquid pork and beans. Thank you!!

Life with rubber bands

Well, if I had written this yesterday I would have entitled it "Misery" because that's what it was. But because I was miserable, and cranky, and hot, and whiney, I didn't blog (good thing, because 'misery' doesn't really fit in with the 'happy Herrons' theme.)

I had a HUGE, HOT swollen mass on the left side on my jaw (while the right side was definately smaller). And the bruises came out in full force. And I was SO HUNGRY. (Seriously liquids only through a 1/8 inch tube is NOT a lot of food.) Everything good is TOO chunky. My poor family.

Anyway, TODAY is GOOD! Swelling down, mood and general happiness UP. A nice Saturday at home. The girls are cute. Josh is awesome. They called in for more testing, so he will be working some more nights this week. He bought the girls a BIG swimming pool - so come on over next week (after Tuesday at 8 a.m.) and swim with us! Warning: it is COLD.

BUT TUESDAY at 7:45 a.m. is the MOMENT (hopefully) the rubber bands come off and my new life of jaw-freedom begins. I am REALLY looking forward to it.

Things you might not have thought about when your jaw is rubber-banded shut:

1) you can not yell. Now this might be good for those of us with the goal to 'yell less at the kiddos" BUT it also means you can't yell "look out" or "that is HOT" or "Josh I need you!" You must resort to banging on things, chapping your hands or even waving your arms a lot. Not nearly as effective.

2) you can not lick anything. Little dirt on your kid's face? No spit is available to clean it off. Have something stuck in your mouth? No spit is there to move it around. Also no spit to turn pages.

3) your tongue is trapped. Yep, it is inside the mouth-trap (which no tooth brush has touched for 5 days (don't stand too close)) and can't really help. It can't taste much of anything. It can't move things around. It can't keep your teeth/gums moist. Also it can't help regulate temperature, so everything has to be lukewarm (yes, I put all my beverages in the microwave first these days) so your front teeth don't freeze/boil.

4) ALL food looks good. After 8 days of only liquids, a soft diet seems like paradise! Noodles! Bread! Peanut butter! ANYTHING! This is particually true when your honey orders french fries and eats them all on front of you, while you slurp down 1/4 cup of too cold soda.

5) eating requires at least 6 napkins. And an immediate trip to the bathroom afterwards. Here is a shot of the eating-appliance in all its glory.

6) you can't yawn. You must help hold your jaw shut when you cough or sneeze.

7) you dream about food. A LOT. This afternoon nap I dreamed about eating candy, lots and lots of candy. Ugh.

That is about all I can think of right now. Josh blended me up some pork and beans for dinner - YUM! I am FULL. SO nice. We went grocery shopping and here is me, being hungry with all the carbs.

And an update of the bruising/swelling: