Finally...Some Packing Snow!

With all of the days off we've had due to winter weather this year, there hasn't been much snow (mostly ice), and a lot of the snow we did get came with very cold temperatures with meant it didn't pack well so the kids couldn't make snowmen, forts, etc.  Not true today.  Although it was so warm this snowman only lasted a few hours before he fell over backwards and cracked his head open.

Random Updates

We're home on a snow day today (Number 7 if you're keeping count) so I have a few free minutes to give an update of happenings in the Keller house.

Even though today was a snow day, we had to get up at 7:00 because Sam was on the radio!  A Columbus station recorded Sam's class reciting the Pledge of Allegiance (I'm guessing they do this for all schools in the area) and Sam was chosen to introduce the class.  So at 7:27 a.m. we heard him say, "Hi.  My name is Sam and this is Mrs. Galsterer's class."  It was really cool, and he was quite pleased with himself.  I just wish we had been able to record it somehow.

Maria had her tooth pulled yesterday.  It went quick, and she did fine.  Seemed a little out of it for a few hours after - could have been the laughing gas wearing off and she also told me it just felt too funny to talk much.  She was eating normal by dinnertime and never took any pain medication, although her cheek is fairly swollen today.  Probably lucky for her that her middle school dance got moved to next week because of the weather.  She has to have an impression taken for the retainer next week, and then gets the retainer the following week.  She only has to wear it overnight.  Then will see what the braces plan is.  We're still mulling over the possibility of getting a second opinion.

Maria won a raffle for her magazine fundraiser, and the prize was a 5 pound chocolate candy bar.  It's huge.  Every day I break off a small piece to pack in her lunch for dessert, and at this pace she won't finish it until the end of the school year!  It was surprising she won since each child's name got put in the drawing once for every 5 magazines they sold, and she only sold 6 magazines., so her name was only in the drawing once.  I'm guessing the high sellers were a little unhappy about that.

Ben continues to train for his marathon.  He is running about 50 miles a week (usually 5 days), and follows a fairly strict training program.  The Flying Pig is on April 30, so he still has a little while to go.  Both Andy S. and Andy P. and training for the same marathon, so he has had some company, at least.

We've both been tracking what we eat and our calories on Livestrong.com since the beginning of the year.  My goal was to lose 11 pounds by the time we take the Disney Cruise - March 27.  Ben's goal was to lose a few pounds (holiday weight mainly) and just be healthier so he could run well.  I've lost 9 pounds so far, but have seemed to hit a plateau the last few weeks.  So I'm trying to add a few more miles on the treadmill per week to help.  Right now I run 5 days and week, go to Zumba one day a week, and take Saturdays off.  I make myself run on Zumba days if class has been cancelled because of the weather.  I do feel so much better - my pants are not tight at all.  I just am trying to go slowly so I can maintain my weight.  Ben hit his target weight (lost seven pounds) and went a little below, so he's done trying to lose.

Teaching has been rough lately.  All of the craziness at the state level is depressing, and scary, and on our minds all of the time.  We hope to survive the extreme budget cuts we see coming, but have discussed things I never though we would need to - like the possibility of getting summer jobs, refinancing the mortgage, other career choices, etc.  We both enjoy what we're doing and would like to keep doing it, but we are just not certain what may happen.  As I said, it's scary and depressing.

That's about it here - we are all starting to get excited about the cruise and getting out of this winter weather - only 30 more days!

Awesome Kids

Last night we attended parent/teacher conferences for Sam.  The verdict:  He's doing great.  His reading level has improved since November (the last time it was checked), and he's reading at the level he is supposed to be at by the end of the year.  His reading comprehension (being able to summarize what he's read) has vastly improved since November.  When Ben and I saw his writing response on his reading assessment, we couldn't believe that our son had written it. It's not that Sam can't write, it's that he usually chooses to write as little as possible.  On this paper, the entire page was filled.  And he correctly summarized what he had read - a previous concern was that his mind wanders when he reads so that when it comes time to write about the story there are gaps in his summary.  Or he just fills in the gap with information from his imagination, which didn't happen in the story at all.  This time, he filled the entire page with sentences relevant to the story.

Sam's math level continues to be above grade level as well.  He is pretty stubborn about math - he either knows how to do it and is confident about his answers, or he refuses to try (like on pre-tests) because he can't stand to have a wrong answer.  But he catches on pretty quickly to the concepts.  And I am well aware from our homework struggles where his weaknesses in math are (subtraction facts!)

Socially things are going good.  She commented that he deals pretty well with another little boy (and friend) who just likes to pick at Sam sometimes.  Sam gets frustrated easily but is handling these issues more calmly apparently.  Sam and his friend tend to have battles about who's right all the time, and since neither one can stand to be corrected, it can sometimes be a problem.  But apparently the boys are doing better at handling it on their own.  And Sam is not a tattler, which is quite a stigma at this age.

Maria continues to excel as well.  We did not go to her conferences - she told me she didn't see a need, and neither did we.  Middle school conferences are "student-led," which I don't really see the point of - we talk with her all the time about school and what is going on there.  We have "student-led" conferences at our dinner table most nights.  And her teachers can certainly get a hold of Ben or I easily enough since we are all in the same building.  Her science teacher spoke to me just the other day about how wonderful she is (and shared with a third party in our presence):  "She's just the whole package.  Smart, friendly, polite, mature, talented..."  There was more but you get the idea.  As part of student council, Maria got to read announcements on the intercom for the entire school each day during January.  Neither Ben nor I could hear them since we are not in the middle school, but many people expressed to us about what a wonderful job she did - we still get comments about it.  Apparently she made quite an impression.

Here's another example of Maria's character.  Last week she was telling me how Mrs. Kehlbeck was teaching her science class about the atom and she didn't have a large model of the atom (none of us do, for some strange reason).  Maria, who has never met a problem that couldn't be solved with some yarn and a crochet hook or two knitting needles, decided she would crochet Mrs. Kehlbeck a model.  So Thursday night she started making little balls to represent protons and neutrons (I helped to make sure the atom was a correct representation of a particular element), and Saturday Ben helped her put the entire thing together with wires.  She was so excited to surprise Mrs. Kehlbeck with her model, and was just so happy to make someone else happy.

So I guess this blog post can be summarized by saying we have two pretty awesome kids (not that I'm biased or anything).

Scout Sunday 2011

Cub Scout Sunday actually went off on its planned day this year.  Last year it was almost a month later and in a much shortened version.

We started with the rehearsal for the church service at 9:30 am in Milford Center and followed with the service at 10:30, which was almost totally run by the scouts.  Things went very well and it didn't last too long.  Sam served as an acolyte and got to light the candles at the start of the service and did an admirable job.  (not all scouts got a duty in the service, so this was definitely a vote of confidence from his pack leaders!) Immediately after was the cake auction, where Lisa's "Harshman" recipe coffee cake went for a very respectable $15.  All the cake auction profits benefited the scout pack and they made some good money!

Next came the pot luck which was quite nice.  Lisa made her 7 layer salad and there were meatballs and beef tenderloins as well as pasta and lots of awesome desserts.  Everyone ate well, including Sam who ate his entire hot dog.

Finally came the Pinewood Derby.  Sam and I have been working on his car for a few weeks and we were both really happy with it.  He wanted the theme to be "water" so we made a wavy cut in the wood and painted it two different colors of blue.  Sam picked out an aqua-lego guy for the top and also put on a Poke e Mon sticker that Gage had given him.  There were 24 cars in the field and Sam won his first two races, but lost his next two.  He made the top 6 cars, and both of his defeats were to the #1 and #2 cars in the tournament.  All of this meant nothing to Sam, of course, as he was most upset he didn't get a trophy.  He did snap out of it pretty quickly though, and all seems well with the world now.

All in all, it didn't seem like 6.5 hours of Cub Scouting...which was much better than I expected.

Ice Storm 2011

Today is Day 2 of this storm, although all we've had today are snow showers off and on, accumulating to less than an inch.  But the damage has been done.  We had hours of freezing rain Monday night, and then a break for most of the day yesterday.  Tuesday evening the freezing rain started again, and the trees started to look pretty heavy.  Last night we were watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with the kids (school had been canceled so we let them stay up late), and the lights flickered pretty often.  We really thought losing power was just a matter of time.  Knowing we have that generator eased our minds quite a bit, but the kids were still pretty nervous about losing power when we put them to bed.  But eventually the temperatures warmed up, and the warmer rain seemed to melt quite a bit of the ice on the power lines and trees.  When we got up this morning and surveyed the dameage, we lost a few limbs off of our pine trees, but everything else was still pretty intact.  And we never did lose power.  We were very fortunate given the amount of ice that came down.

But the cabin fever is starting to set in.  We were out of school Tuesday, today, and have been called off for tomorrow as well.  Our road is still a solid sheet of ice - Ben hasn't even ventured out.  Yesterday, we were all content to sit around and relax, although we did have some family foosball and Ping-Pong tournaments last night.  Today Ben and I cleaned out a couple of kitchen cabinets, I filed our taxes, Maria and I baked cookies, and I still feel the need to get out of the house.  Late this afternoon, the kids went outside with Mason and chipped some pieces of ice from the deck.  There was also quite a bit of sliding and falling, but no one seems the worse for wear. 

Part of me wishes we had gotten the big snows that they had in Chicago - the ice is not nearly as much fun for kids as a couple of inches of ice.  I mean, if we have to have a big storm, bring on the snow.  But we don't get a choice in the matter, so I'm just thankful that we made it through the storm pretty easily (except for making up all of these school days).

Braces Bullies

Today was Maria's consultation appointment with the orthodontist to see what should be done about her missing molar.  I had called two weeks ago, talked to a receptionist for 15 minutes, who took down all my information and set up the appointment for 11:00 today, which I wrote down.  Then the office called me the next day needing more of our insurance information, which I gave them.  So it was a little shocking when we got there today and they had no record at all of our appointment.  They still took us, but labeled us "Walk-ins" which irritated me.  I mean, who did I give all that informtaion to on the phone two weeks ago?

We got in after only a 45 minute wait (but what could we expect, being walk-ins and all), and they immediately took pictures of every possible angle of Maria's mouth.  These will serve as her "before" pictures.  Except, why do we need "before" pictures before any Dr. has actually looked in her mouth or her x-ray?  All of this for one missing tooth, that hasn't even been looked at?  The entire atmosphere of the office is a foregone conclusion that you are walking out of there with braces.  When we filled out our information, there's a part where Maria writes in friends she has who also got their braces at that office (she is as defiant as me sometimes, and just put an "X" through the entire box - I'm so proud).  Then the "treatment specialist," who was very friendly - although there wasn't much competition given the welcome we received when we got there - took down some general information from us before the orthodontist came in.  That's when I broached the subject of braces having never been mentioned to us by our regular dentist, and wondered why everyone there was acting like it was a done deal.  All we have is a missing tooth.  And as expected, she danced around the question and said there were many things they could do.

Then she left and came back a few minutes later with the orthodontist.  While she was gone, Maria and I discussed any questions we needed to make sure we asked, and that I wouldn't just agree to braces without lots of information, and that we would need to discuss everything with Dad at home too.  This is a child who has been certain for years that even though everyone she knows (and I'm not sure that's an exageration) has had an experience with braces, she would be spared.  And all of a sudden they're pushing braces on us, and she was scared and unhappy.  The orthodontist reminded both of us of a less goofy Jim Carrey - tall, great smile (of course), very friendly, and a way of flipping his hair that reminded us of a Jim Carrey character.  Anyway, he looked at Maria's teeth and x-ray, and showed me a few things I was unaware of - mainly that Maria's front top teeth are worn down from something - possibly from grinding her teeth at night.  Although I've never heard her do this, I was always a grinder so she may be as well.  He also showed me the tooth in question, and explained why it needs to come out soon, before the gum grows up over it.

So we are seeing on oral surgeon in two weeks for a consult there, and then we will make an appointment for them to pull the tooth.  After that, the orthodonsist will give us a clear plastic retainer she'll wear at night to "manage the space" where the tooth was.  A side benefit of the retainer is that after a few weeks, if its scratched up, we'll know that she does grind her teeth and that will explain the wearing problem.  We'll "manage the space" until the rest of her molars come in.  The matching tooth on her other side of the problem tooth looks like it may not be fully developed, so they have to wait and see if that one will come in or not.  But he said that eventually, she'll need braces, no doubt.  So I asked if just on the bottom or on the top too, and he said both to deal with "bite issues."  I guess I'm wondering why they can't eventually put an implant there for the tooth rather than give her braces, but he said it was too early to know exactly what will be needed, other than the braces - that he's sure about. 

Don't get me wrong, if she needs braces, then we absolutely want her to have them.  But let's face it - that's how an orthodontist makes his money.  And the fact that the braces were their answer before anyone even looked in her mouth makes me uncomfortable.  Later, when Maria and I were talking about it, I asked her about her friends, and she could not think of one person in her class that she hangs out with that has not either already had braces, will be getting braces, or has braces now.  So does every single kid need braces now?  I doubt it.

So we are going to get the tooth pulled and go from there.  If we start to feel real pressure, I supposed we'll get a second opinion, although I would assume all orthodontists will tell you that you definitely need braces.  Right now Maria is really against it too, but will she look back when she's 25 and wish she had perfect teeth, instead of the not-quite-perfect teeth she'll have without braces?  Where is that line between really needing them and just perfecting her smile?  Because it seems like a lot of hassle, pain, and money if she doesn't really need them.

Tubing!

Today we went tubing at Mad River Mountain with the Smiths. This trip was really a belated Christmas gift - we decided to have a fun outing with the kids instead of getting gifts for each other this year. But the weather didn't cooperate over Christmas break, so we went today. We wanted to go on a Sunday morning so it wouldn't be crowded - last year we went on a Saturday aftenoon and it was so busy we only went down the hill 5 times in over two hours. Our plan worked - today we went down 10-12 times, and took a half hour to eat lunch during our three hour stay.

We all had a blast. There was a slight problem with Lindsey at first, who decided once she got to the top of the hill that there was no way she was going down in a tube. No way. The catch was that she had to go down in a tube at least once - its the only way to get to the bottom of the hill. Through the help of Andy and a Mad River employee who was awesome at his job, she was finally convinced to go down the hill once. And after that first trip, she decided that it was fun, and then she was fine the rest of the time.

The eight of us went down the hill in all kinds of different groups, but the most fun was when all eight of us went down together. The slopes were very fast -much faster than I remember last year. We had to be very careful to not actually put our bottoms in the tube - you had to hold your butt off the ground or it was very painful - lots of bouncing on the ice. But once you learned that, it was fine. I just can't believe how fast we went down that hill.

All in all, an awesome winter activity, but now I'm ready for our tropical cruise!

Semester One Ends....GRADE CARDS!

After delays and cancellations and all that, we finally got Maria and Sam's grade cards today.  If you glance over them, you can understand why we're such pleased parents.  Not just because of the grades (all A's), but also the comments they get from their teachers.  We feel so proud to have such great kids!

And So It Begins

Today the kids and I visited the dentist for our usual six month appointment. No one has any cavities, which is good news but pretty much expected as none of us have ever had any. But then the hygienist came out to tell me they were going to do a panoramic x-ray on Maria to see why her molars are slow to erupt. Sure enough, they found that a left bottom molar, which is still a baby tooth, has no adult tooth waiting to come in. This may not be a problem, but may cause the teeth around it to close in, since the baby tooth is much smaller then the adult tooth would be. Apparently, this is not completely uncommon, and is sometimes genetic, although neither Ben nor I have this problem. So she has to see an orthodontist, who will decide if they need to do "something" or just wait and see. I have no idea what that "something" might be - our dentist told us there are all kinds of "things" they do now.

So we have an appointment on January 31, where we are meeting with the orthodontist and his treatment assistant, and were told the appointment would take an hour. They may even start "treatment" that day, but again, I have no idea what that "treatment" might be. I also have no idea how much of this the insurance company might pay for -our family is so lucky in the dental area we never have any expenses other than getting our teeth cleaned. We really thought Maria's teeth were straight enough to not need braces, so we thought we were past having to worry about anything like this. But I'm not sure I know of any parent with a child Maria's age who has not had at least one visit to the orthodontist, though, so I guess we'll just become part of that club. I'll update after the appointment

Sam Went Snowboarding

Grandma and Grandpa Keller got Sam a gift card to Mad River Mountain since he was interested in trying snowboarding.  Today was the day we hit the bunny slope and he had his first class.  The staff was very helpful and his teachers were great.  Everything was well organized and it all went smoothly.  His boots fit, his board was nice, and even his helmet fit right.


I'm pretty sure the next time he goes, he'll want to be on his own so he can experiment some more and learn at his own pace.  The bonus with the class is that he got to cut to the front of the belt-lift every time they got to the bottom.  I think it's probably a do-over :-)