Last night DD1’s soccer association had their end of season banquet. Dh had to work, so I wrangled the kiddos and we went out to enjoy the evening with DD1’s soccer team. Her coach gave each of the kids a framed picture of the team, as well as a few images of each kid on their own. In fact she had a whole goody bag filled with neat little “thank you for being such a great team player” type gifts. DD1 was blown away.

She was even more excited once she realized that she was getting a trophy. She’s been obsessed about the idea of getting a trophy since she started dance and noticed all the Dance trophies on display. She already has cleared out a spot on her shelf for the trophy. She won’t stop talking about it and desperately can’t wait until she can show it to her Grandma P.

Last night on the way home from the Banquet I overheard her in the backseat talking to herself:

“I’m going to call Grandma to tell her about the trophy. She’s going to be sooo excited! She’s going to say, ‘Oh my! A trophy. How wonderful. That is sooo special.’ Then I’m gong to say to Grandma, ‘I know. Thank you very much.”

Hee hee.

People ask me why I insist on DD1 taking a daily mid-day nap. After all, there are quite a few preschoolers out there who no longer need a mid-day rest; let alone a mid-day nap. Often I have a hard time articulating why I insist on it, and resort to a feable, “She just needs one.”

And then, a day like today happens. Not that much happened. In fact, it was a fairly uneventful day of running short errands, doing some housework, and even squeezing in a little dance class for DD1. The only real thing that stands out from today is the fact that DD1 didn’t nap.

One evening of an unrested DD1 is all it takes to remind me why I’m so adamant about mid-day naps.

As I type this, her over-energized-juiced-up body is in serious over drive. She is literally running into walls and bouncing on every imaginable surface. She’s speaking at a completely un-modulated volume, and is otherwise unreasonably giddy and hyper. Every direction is met with a blank face and an incomprehensible wild-eyed confusion and intensity.

I am exhausted by just being in the same room with her.

In fact, it is this level of insanity that, I believe, prompted last week’s hair dressing session in the playroom. (See picture to visualize the extent of the “dressing” that was accomplished before they were discovered.) It is also this level of intensity that has me seeking multi-sensory activities for DD1 to do on an everyday basis.

And, in a small part, it is this level of insanity and energy that has prompted Dh and I to get DD1 evaluated for SPD. We will find out on Wednesday what the verdict is. I would be lying if a part of me isn’t more than a little apprehensive about the results. Although, I’m not sure what is more daunting. The idea that she may have SPD. Or the idea that she doesn’t.

Well, I spent the morning on the phone and ended up canceling the root canal scheduled for tomorrow, and instead I got a last minute exam for this afternoon with a second holistic dentist office.

Let me first say, I knew I was out of my league when they offered complimentary drinks in the waiting room. If I had read the website well enough I would have seen the following description of their facilities and services:

From your first call to our concierge to book your visit, you begin to notice the extras we offer our guests such as the First Class leather airline seats in the reception area, your choice of movies during treatment, Bose sound-canceling headphones, hot towels at the end of the visit, and all that insurance red tape handled for you by our insurance specialist.

After arriving, I was given a tour, including a room called the “Oasis” where they sat and chatted with me about my dental health. They had a special room with a view for cleanings, a special room for general work, and then a specific room for removing amalgam fillings. It is a beautiful place to go and feel pampered.

Add to that, everything I saw and heard aligned very closely with my own health philosophy.

By the way, I did ask about pulling all my teeth out and getting dentures. I think I shocked the woman who was helping me. She said the procedure would be horrendous, as would the healing time, and that she would never recommend doing that, nor would their office support that choice.

So whatever that means.

Anyway, they said some things that made sense to me. Including three things I’d never really heard mentioned before with regards to amalgams and mercury.

1) Mercury is toxic. (Okay, I’ve heard this before. lol. Just never heard a dentist admit it.)

2) Mercury expands with age. (Which explains why inevitably my teeth crack around the filling.)

3) Mercury never properly bonds with the tooth, which creates opportunity for bacteria and eventually decay under the filling.

The X-Rays confirmed their assertion. You can see where my teeth are decaying BELOW the fillings. Almost from the inside out. This office wants to remove all the mercury from my mouth and replace it with hypo-allergenic stuff. The idea is that bacteria begets bacteria, and that the amalgams in my mouth are creating sort of a vicious cycle of bacteria/cavities… So the plan is to remove the amalgams and then target a change in PH in my mouth through cleaning, diet, and hygiene.

It was so interesting talking to a dentist who did not swear by fluoride. In fact, they insisted I avoid it.

The dentist also mentioned that my teeth are softer than most peoples. Which explains why the cavities deteriorate so quickly. It’s just going to be a fact of my life that I’m always going to have to be more vigilant than other people. The good news, though, is that I have really healthy gums and strong bones. For whatever that’s worth.

The point of prayer in all this is the price. Over $13,000.

Eep.

I just have no idea where we’re going to get that cash. We’ve been working so hard on debt snowballing, and now I feel overwhelmed. If there is ANYTHING about Dave Ramsey that I find annoying is the lack of advice on what to do when you are maxed out, and your health care craps out on you.

Bleck.

The dentist office has the whole process broken down into about six visits. The first visit will cost me $1500. They will file it on my insurance and I will get $700 back. The second visit will cost around $700. So there is the remote possibility that I can get MOST (Not the crowns or bridges) done for the top of my mouth with the stimulus check we were going to throw down on the van. (Still haven’t talked to Dh about that…) But after that, I just don’t know what I am going to do.

The biggest expense is going to be the bridges and crowns. If it weren’t for them, I think we could figure out a way to do this.

I tried not to cry. Again. When she showed me the numbers. In fact I held it together until she said that they want to wait to remove the tooth that is bothering me until AFTER all the mercury is out of my mouth. (Something about the possibility of mercury getting into the cavity where the tooth was pulled if it isn’t healed properly and we remove fillings…) I know they felt bad for me. The woman kept saying, “Just do this in small chunks.”

She has no idea how LARGE their “small” chunks are to our household.

Please, be praying with me as I find direction. I can’t do nothing. I need to find a path, a game plan, and forge forward.

Back in December my dentist had noted that the filling on one of my teeth had cracked, and told me to make an appointment for a cleaning and an exam. Well, they didn’t have an exam or cleaning appointment available and put me on a calling list. I contacted them in January about the cleaning appointment and was assured I would be called. Well, as it happens time flew. We either didn’t have the $$ to do the work, or the time… Excuse after another, until I noticed about a week ago that a tooth was bothering me.

I called and made the appointment for today and was told that the decay had progressed to the point that a root canal would be needed. He drilled the tooth, covered it with a temporary filling. Told me not to eat or drink on that side. Not to floss the tooth. And explained the root canal needed to be done ASAP because from now until then I would be in pain. He then handed me a prescription for Vicodin.

I was stunned.

As I sat there, frozen with questions. He proceeded to admonish me for being addicted to sugar and for eating so much sugar. He told me I needed to stop drinking soda, eating candy, and scarfing on ice scream.

It was like I stepped into a warped universe!

WHAT SUGAR!

GAAARRRRRRRRRRR!

I tried to explain that we are HFCS free, that we don’t drink soda, we don’t eat out. The few times we eat “forbidden foods” are few enough between occasions that I would hardly blame it for the state of my teeth! I told him about how often we brush and floss, I told him about using MI paste and doing oral dysinfections. I explained that the gum I eat is Xylitol based… the whole deal.

He shook his head and declared, “Well your mouth says differently. You have more cavities now then you did in December. At the rate your going you are going to have a lot more root canals on the future. This root canal alone is going to cost you -out of pocket- over two-thousand dollars. And that doesn’t even include the crown.”

It was at this point where I just started crying. I couldn’t even stop myself.

I feel so defeated.

I’m angry at my body for having teeth like this. I’m angry at the dentist for accusing me of somehow neglecting or willfully contributing to poor dental health. I’m angry that health insurance doesn’t cover TEETH. Since WHEN is the tooth NOT a part of my body and thereby a part of my overall health. HOW can it be legal to specifically exclude teeth from coverage?

Needless to say. Today I’m grumpy, and angry, and I just want to crawl into bed with my painful tooth and just ignore the world. I find myself wishing all my teeth would just fall out. They say that a third of the population will end up with false teeth. We all know it’s an inevitability for me. Especially at the rate I’m going. Why wait? Surely it would be cheaper in the long run?

Yesterday two of my kiddos woke up with a hacking cough. It appeared overnight and sounds horrid. Tonight, my other two kiddos have developed the same onset of cough. Not sure what’s going on. I just know it’s doing a fine job of interupting sleep.

It’s 4:06 a.m. and here is what my night has looked like:

9:30 p.m. The babies are asleep.
10:00 p.m. The two eldest girls finally fell asleep. (Don’t ask.)
10:15 p.m. I went to bed.
10:38 p.m. DFS1 woke up, having pooped.
11:00 p.m. I was able to go back to bed.
12:15 a.m. DFS1 woke up again with gas. He eats 2 ounces.

-It was at this point that I figured out that DD1 had snuck into my room, I moved her back to her room, only to find DD2 awake and crying because she was having a hard time breathing. I bring her to bed with me.)

12:40 a.m. I go back to bed.
1:30 a.m. DFS1 is awake AGAIN. He’s poopy. Again.
1:40 a.m. I crawl back in bed after having fed DFS1 two ounces.
2:30 a.m. A big burp wakes up DFS1. As I climb out of bed to comfort him. DD3 wakes up.

-I burp DFS1, feed DD3, put DFS1 back to sleep and then bring a wide awake DD3 downstairs to bounce in the bouncer and hope to put back to sleep. During the next hour and a half DFS1 wakes AGAIN and is again back to sleep. -

4:12 a.m. I’m headed to bed. The two eldest will be up at 6:30 a.m. like clockwork. Wish me luck.

It feels like we’re finally rounding the bend and mending. I keep forgetting to take my antibiotics on time, so what should have been a ten day course is truly much longer.

In other news, DD3 has had an explosion of growth these last couple weeks. Her accomplishments include climbing stairs (eek!), growing a first tooth, learning how to point, perfecting the clap, saying words, “Up,” “Dada” and something that sounds suspiciously like DD1’s name. She also will happily give anybody who asks a nice solid “high five.” Watching her grow is both bitter and sweet. Why can’t they stay tiny forever?

Dh has been on Jury Duty all week, and today he finally had off. So, we spent the day at Mayfest in Fort Worth. We didn’t stay super long. Just long enough to get absolutely filthy with fun and properly exhausted. Wish we lived a little closer, we could have left for naps and returned for evening celebrations.

Maybe next year.

DD3 took her first crawling steps today. She was seated on the floor a couple feet from me, when Dh turned on the vacuum. Apparently fear for life and limb is an excellent motivator, because those little hands and feet just started to go and didn’t stop until she had crawled all the way up to my head. I still giggle when I think about it. She’s such a nutty little kid.

Today our case worker with Early Childhood Intervention and a Speech Therapist came by to evaluate DD2. We’d already met the caseworker earlier a couple weeks ago, but this was our first time seeing the Speech Therapist. They were here nearly two hours. Praise God my Mom decided to come over and entertain DD1 during the evaluation. I’m not sure what we would have done had she not helped out. I know it was hard for DD1 to watch DD2 get so much undivided attention.

During the interview and testing we were asked a whole host of questions about DD2. Everything from cognitive development to gross-motor skills. Questions like, “Does she eat with a spoon.” “Can she identify objects without prompting.” They did a clinical observation and administered the DAYC test as well as one called Rossetti. The DAYC test focused on five subset categories. These categories included: Cognition, Communication, Social-Emotional, Physical Development, and Adaptive Behavior. The Rossetti is a little more complicated to describe. So go read up on it for yourself.

Immediately following the testing they talked to us about the test scores. I wish I had written it down. My memory is really sketchy on all the fine details about what the scores were. I know for the DAYC test she scored around 20 months on a lot of things. (She’s closer to 26 months.) She did score higher on the social-emotional level. I think I remember that being about 31 months.

The part that we were most interested in, and really the most surprised by, was that she scored between 9 and 12 months for her speech. I knew she was delayed, but had no idea how severely.

We sat down and worked out 6 month goals as well as a long-term plan for when she graduates from ECI. We’re currently on a twice a month therapy rotation and were given information on how to get her hearing tested for free. The financial aspect of everything really has been one of the biggest blessings. DD2 qualifies for the hearing testing AND the therapy for free.

I cannot tell you how relieved I am that we’re finally doing something. AND that we’re going to be able to afford it. My biggest heart-ache was wondering what we would do if we found out we needed to do something but couldn’t afford to help her.

DD2’s first therapy appointment is in February. February 12th, at 11:00 a.m. to be exact.

It’s been two weeks now that we’ve been trying to be HFCS free. It hasn’t been easy. Day three of HFCS free was probably the hardest day. I spent all day itching under my skin to run out and drink an entire route 44 Cranberry Limeade. I used to think that it was the caffeine that kept me coming back to Soda, but the truth is, I haven’t been drinking caffeine. Certainly not enough to be addicted to it. It’s strange to think that HFCS has the same pull on me.

I fully admit that the change hasn’t been easy. We’re finding HFCS in some of the strangest places. One of the surprises that stands out to me is when Dh brought KFC home and he showed me that the first ingredient listed on their honey was HFCS! Sheesh! Shouldn’t honey be honey?

I know there were some people wondering about how to go about making the HFCS-free switch. I thought I’d share how things work in this home, and then some simple tips for avoiding HFCS.

To begin with, our standard day starts with protein. On the list of breakfast items is eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, sausage, and whole wheat toast. Not all at once, mind you. But it’s a list that I can easily choose from and make something filling and delicious. My favorite “easy” breakfast is scrambled eggs with cheese. The girls like it with ketchup, and as long as I buy organic or natural ketchup, we have it in the house for them to use.

Snacks usually consist of carrots, celery, or apple wedges. I’m not so super terrific at setting out snacks everyday, but the girls know if they’re hungry they can ask and I’ll get them some crispy veggie or fruit to munch on. (We avoid things like fruit leather and raisins, because they’re generally not great for teeth. Considering the tooth saga’s we have going on around here, every little bit helps.)

Lunch is invariably some form of last nights dinner. However, if I don’t have left-overs to choose from, then we make PB & Honey or tuna sandwiches. We get our bread from Costco. They offer a whole wheat bread that is similar to Ezekiel bread, without the price tag. Until I finally start making our own bread, it is sufficient for right now. I actually really like the bread. The girls sort of tolerate it. DD1 is the one person in our family that really doesn’t like it very much. If I cut it into shapes then she does better with it. Sometimes, I even toast it for her and she’ll eat it then.

Our Lunch menu is our most meager meal of the day. At least when it comes to selection. I’ve been known to make a double batch of scrambled eggs and store the rest for lunch “breakfast” tacos. I’d like to get better at making quiche, because I see it as an all-around great option for breakfast or lunch.

Dinner is whatever is scheduled via the menu mailer. All of KerryAnn’s meals are Gluten and casein free. By default they’re also all cooked from scratch. She uses a minimal amount of sugar to begin with, and to be sure, none of her meals call for HFCS. If I remember to do it, I try to bento the left overs, so that lunch the next day is already ready to go.

The fact is, eating at home isn’t the problem. It’s eating out. Most sauces (BBQ and such) have HFCS and any white bread you purchase is also made with HFCS. We stick with meals that begin with protein and try to build from there. Although, there will be days when you show up for a meal and the only beverage options are soda, bottled lemonade, and coffee… At that point we pick the lesser of the three and give ourselves a little grace.

For instance, today the girls, my mom, and I went to a spinning guild “Roc Day.” I hate to say it, but I’m certain those sugar cookies were made with HFCS and I know the lemonade the girls drank had it as well.

The only way we could have avoided it is if I had been better prepared. Which leads me to my “on the go HFCS-free” tips.

1) Be prepared. Bring your own drinks and snacks. Keep them with you so that you don’t find yourself stranded at a spinning guild with nothing to eat or drink.

2) Buy “natural” or “organic.” I realize this is not always financially an easy task. But it’s a fairly fool-proof way to eliminate HFCS.

3) If in doubt, eat the protein first. You’ll eat less of the other processed foods and thereby eat less HFCS. Not to mention, the minerals in the protein will aide your body in processing the fructose.

4) Ask the chef (baker, preparer) if they have any alternatives or if they use HFCS in their meals. Ironically our local donut maker doesn’t use ANY HFCS. Not that I advocate eating donuts. Just saying…

The list is fairly short. I may add to it later. But I guarantee that following those four rules will eliminate most impulsive HFCS foods from your list.

Oh! And as an anecdotal note: I have lost five pounds in the last two weeks. Just by eliminating HFCS. Not bad.

Or something like that. We have January marked on our calendar as the day we’re giving up HFCS for good. It’s a bit surreal. And part of me wants to run out and buy a cranberry limeade. One. Last. Time.

Tomorrow is also when we purge our fridge of all HFCS products. After all, you can’t give up HFCS and then have HFCS foods lying around. Someone might get tempted and eat them! Speaking of which, anybody want a free box of random food? I am thinking about giving it to my parents, but feel sort of bad that I’m giving them food that I’ve deemed “not worthy.” *Giggle*

I have also spent today organizing a household notebook. I still have more work to do with it, but am satisfied with the progress I’ve made. For anybody looking to do something similar, you really should check out organizedhome.com They have a ton of free printable forms. Everything from an emergency contact sheet to calendars and to-do lists.

In the name of order, I also tackled the master closet today. It had become a dumping ground of laundry. Fat clothes, skinny clothes, maternity clothes. A nightmare. I’ve managed to wrestle it into a semi manageable state. There is the pile of maternity clothes that need tagged for the JBF sale in February and a pile of give-away clothes that Dh needs to sort through.

I packed up all my skinny clothes and have them boxed for later. I can’t wear them now. I will soon. But right now I’m holding on to too much pregnancy-related weight. (”Related” in the sense that it’s the weight I gained while pregnant. Not so much that it’s pregnancy weight.)

After I get my master closet back in order I plan on working on the laundry room. I’ve put it off for a year now. It’s time to really get serious about organizing.

Don’t worry, I’m going to happily post before and after shots. I just can’t resist.