a dream come true

Somewhere, out there is an orthodontist who is dreaming of this child’s bite and how they will fix it. Be patient, dear orthodontist, someday your dream shall come true.

good things come to those who wait

Remember when I shared about our beautiful smiles cruise? Of course I made the right choice and the beautiful smiles of my children make it all worth it. I reap the benefits, they reap the benefits and our orthodontist, having three children fom the same household simultaneously under her care, reaps some benefits too. It’s all worth it. Zoë’s beautiful smile is worth it.

Abby just got her braces off and it is worth it when she smiles too.

Jodie still has her braces but someday…

I know they won’t come off in time to enjoy this little adventure in July 2008! Still she will have a lot of fun even if she has to work. Her dance team will be dancing.

naked

Oh my can you imagine the number of hits this post might generate just because I titled it naked? Can you imagine if I mentioned sex or genitalia or something that?
Sorry, I am a little silly this afternoon.
Remember when I had to give up my cruise vacation so three of my clowns could get braces? Fun times!
Well look who got hers off today, just in time for the start of the new school year (next week) and school pictures.

I told her she has to smile without ceasing so we can enjoy it. Zoë is absolutely thrilled and is planning on feasting on taffy and nuts tonight.

the very beautiful smiles cruise redoux

Here it is, our family’s beautiful smiles cruise.
Jodie recently got her braces and she is absolutely thrilled. Like her sisters, she sports a lovely, metallic smile that reminds me of those balmy, tropical ocean breezes. I ask the girls to smile often just so I can close my eyes and picture myself there. They usually will reign me back in with an annoyed, “Mom!”
The Mexican Riviera will still be there when my girls someday in the future will flash their dazzling, beautiful smiles that result from the braces that we chose to buy instead of a cruise. In the meantime, I will just close my eyes for a moment and picturee the deep blue ocean and hear the sounds of the cruise ship around me as I sip my tropical drink with the umbrella in it.
So beautiful!

wish I was there

Chris and his beautiful family have just returned from a fabulous five day cruise to Cozumel.
Lucky!
But being the kind of guy that he is, he blogged about each day sharing great pictures and memories that he and his family made.
Lucky!
Sorry, I can’t help but be a little bit jealous as I recall our own plans for this summer until they were changed last fall after a routine visit to the dentist. It’s okay, they were changed for a very good reason…make that THREE very good reasons. Jodie will be sitting in the orthodontist chair next week to begin her part of our beautiful smiles cruise.
You can almost hear the ocean and feel the warm tropical breezes when I make the girls smile.

the beautiful smiles cruise

It was just nine months ago that we had a GREAT idea for our family. We ran into some friends at our kids’ spring band concert and noticed their tans, relaxed postures and the braids the ladies had. They all looked fabulous so we had to ask how did they all come about this new look. The answer was simple. They had just returned from a 7 day cruise vacation…the whole family: mom, dad and three kids.
Steve and Dara shared how much fun they all had and how the vacation had something fun everyday for all of them: adults to teens to kindergartener. Of course we were jealous. There was no big, fun vacation planned for us because I had just started a new job; not to mention the cost prohibitive factor of a cruise vacation for our circus act. But Dara disagreed, at least on the cost point. She then gave me the price tag of their package.
Hmmm….
That’s all?!
Now I was even more jealous.
But then I got to thinking about it all. Steve is a high school science teacher and works part time as one of the high school track coaches. Dara is a SAHM. They carry a mortgage and other bills just like us and yet they could afford this vacation. Of course they did plan and budgeted for several months prior. But still, they could afford this.
Hmmmm….
Why couldn’t we I asked myself and then Bill. We talked it over and decided with a year to save and plan we too could afford a family cruise vacation. The prices for our planned cruise for the seven of us for 7 days was indeed surprisingly affordable. How exciting. We actually were planning a big, fun, family vacation! I bid for the time this coming summer and we began to plan and budget.
Whoo-hoo! A cruise was in our near future.

Then came the last dental check-ups for Zoë, Abby and Jodie. I received not one, not two but three, yes three orthodonture referrals.
Great!
At the orthodontist we received good news/bad news.:

• yes our insurance did cover some of the costs, but not all of it
• Jodie should wait at least for six more months before we begin orthodonture work on her
• We would receive sibling discounts as well as a professional courtesy discount
• Zoë care plan would be pretty basic and simple with braces and maybe bands
• Abby would need braces, a palate expander and a referral for dental surgery to coax a lazy molar down
• Jodie would need some dental surgery as well but later
• the estimated cost for all of this….you guessed it, about the same as the cruise vacation

Every time Zoë and Abby smile now, I see our cruise vacation on the Mexican Riviera. I finally have a picture of the two of them so you too can enjoy what was our cruise vaction.

It’s beautiful!
The end result, their dazzling smiles (Jodie’s too), will be even more beautiful…and I figure, God willing, the Mexican Riviera will be there for another time.
In the meantime, we are punting and tentatively planning a week in Capitola in a beach house rental not unlike a family vacation of Bill’s childhood.

Your Monday Photo Shoot

Your Monday Photo Shoot: More Than One
I thought it would be fun to go multiple for this Photo Shoot:Your Monday Photo Shoot: Show us a series of pictures with a theme. “A series” in this case can mean “two” but three or four would be good. The theme could be anything you want, although it being the holidays, something holiday-oriented would be a good and easy thing to do.

Well John suggested making this easy with holiday/winterish themed pictures in a series.
Too easy!
Actually I have some delightful ones to share, but later, okay?
No I want to share what was to be our family cruise vacation this year. Yes, we were planning and saving with the idea of taking one last big family vacation with all of us before the first baby bird flies the coop or ::::GULP:::: gets married. Some good friends of ours shared over the summer about how much fun they had, as a family, taking a cruise down the Mexican Riviera. He is a high school science teacher and she is a stay at home mom. We thought that if they can do this with their family, surely we could too. So we began to plan….
Until……
We received not one, no, not two but THREE orthodonture referrals simultaneously. Yes, we knew they were coming. But denial is a powerful thing. We naively didn’t see us receiving referrals for Zoë, Abby and Jodie at the same time.
Sheesh!!!
Thankfully, the orthodontist does have a family plan with discounts and we do have some insurance coverage….even better, it seems that the orthodontist’s young son was a patient in the NICU where I work and she is very grateful for us caring for her baby so she also discounted some of the work as a professional courtesy. But still three kids in braces and assorted hardware at the same time.
After the consultation appointments, I told the girls, who were oh so excited about getting braces, that they would be wearing our cruise vacation on their mouths.
“We’re going on a cruise??!!”, they chorused.
“Not anymore. We’re getting braces!”
Maybe we will try to swing a day trip to the Happiest Place on Earth instead.
For now, we are funding our orthodontist’s young son’s college fund and working on cross bites, overbites and crowding…oh yeah, and general trauma. First up, Zoë (thankfully, we are getting the girls started over three months). It seems before Zoë’s accident 2-23-2001 , she might not have needed braces after all. The orthodontist described her mouth as very similar to my own and I have naturally straight teeth with a near perfect bite. Zoë even is missing her wisdom teeth like her mama….that’s right, we have no wisdom! No, it seems that for Zoë the orthodonture will be merely correcting the damage to her mouth when she collided with that 6 ton truck 4 years ago. Zoë is just thrilled at the prospect of having straight teeth.
So here for your entertainment….
A series I title what was to be our cruise vacation
or Zoë’s braces
let’s get started!
admiring the handiwork as it is nearly complete
Here she is with a mouth full of metal!