Implant, Brady Turns 7, VBS

June is already more than half over and we've been busy.

The first major thing on the calendar for the month was my implant. Every time I say the word 'implant', I giggle on the inside because I feel like the word "breast" should precede it. But alas, it is only the boring kind with the word 'tooth' in front of it. I have had my braces since September which I'm wearing to help pull down the bone where I got the implant so that my gum line will be all even when I finally get my new tooth. I was so excited thinking that when the implant went in, the braces would be gone. But nope! Braces have stayed to anchor in my temporary tooth. Bummer! I had the implant surgery on Monday, June 4 and it went exceptionally well. I went under general anesthesia and the doctor said I could quite possibly have a black eye, major swelling, and pain. I didn't have any of it and in fact, didn't have to take any of the pain meds. Apparently my mouth handles surgery well. I can't say the same for my mouth as far as getting hit with large, hard objects.

Anywho, the implant went in and then I had to go to my orthodontist who put in a fake tooth and reattached my wire. This tooth is very precarious and it even moves around and I fear I will be pushing it back in place every few minutes for the next who-knows-how-many-months. It could take upwards of six months for the implant to implant so it's just a waiting game until then. Yay me!

The next big thing to happen was that Brady turned seven on Friday, June 8. Since his birthday occurred on a Friday, we weren't able to do his first choice of activity, which was laser tag, so we ended up just renewing our Science Center membership and hanging out there for the afternoon. Calleigh was a true homeschooler and complained a few times about how annoying it is when the kids are out of school and it's so crowded. We also did Brady's well visit last week and he continues to defy conventional wisdom that you need to eat vegetables to grow and thrive. With the exception of kale/spinach in his smoothies, he literally eats NO vegetables. But he still gained almost five pounds and 2.5 inches and remains a happy kid.

Brady - 7 Years

Weight - 45 pounds (25th)

Height - 46 inches (25th)

Can't find the card with his BP and Pulse

Clothing Size - 6 (shirts/pants), 5 (shorts)

Shoe Size - 12

Science Center

Aubree broke the record for hanging the longest but maybe that happens every few minutes!

Went to IHOP for his birthday meal. Way back when it was still IHOP rather than "IHOb."

The anticipation was mounting on his big gift.

His face of disbelief that he got a "smart watch." It's **only** $47 on Amazon but you'd have thought it was an Apple watch or something.

If you want to watch the video of him getting the watch, click HERE. It gets particularly entertaining about 1:00 in.

Building a project he got as a gift.

Hearing test at the doc. He passed.

A couple of more presents today from Grandma and Grandpa (who were gone on his birthday) and he was very excited.

Ninjago Legos

Next up, was Vacation Bible School (VBS) which was this past week. The theme was "Shipwrecked." Colby was finally able to participate since you need to be four. It's a bit of a drag having an August birthday because he was ALMOST four last year. Meanwhile, Calleigh was too old this year and I was so happy that she missed it so badly that she wanted to volunteer so she could still participate. At her age, you need a parent with you so I volunteered to lead Colby's group and she could be my assistant.

A big perk to volunteering is that you and your family get a free breakfast every morning. The downside is that you have to be there by 8:00 am but it was so worth it because the breakfast was fantastic. A full array of hot items and a bunch of other stuff. The volunteer chef is an old student of my dad's, Russ Durham, who we ironically just met in March when my dad was here and took the kids to see his bike shop. He also teaches music at OJA so he clearly has many talents. We all loved the breakfast and we were indeed grateful that our commute to the church was only 15 minutes rather than the 35-40 minutes before we moved.

I was seriously blessed with a great group of 4/5 year olds. They were all little girls from my Sabbath School class plus Colby. It didn't phase him one bit to be with a bunch of girls. He never even commented on it. They were all easy, especially because I had Calleigh who was very popular with two of the girls. VBS goes from 9:00 - 12:00 and the time just flew right by since you move from station to station every 20 minutes. We all had a great time, as usual, and we were all sad to see it end.

Addi, Elin (she's frowning because she had to move for the picture), Colby, Calleigh, Nora, and Maiya

Brady lucked out and got in Amy's group!

Aubree's leader was Heather and she was with Eva, Kaleb, and Evan.

As long as she's with her bestie, Eva, she's happy!

The breakfast line.

Brady was very excited because they had fruit loops.

Games

Calleigh looks so old here!

The Imagination Station, aka, crafts

Amy took lots of pictures for me.

Brady was the poor man, begging for alms.

Kids against the adults. Calleigh got to be an "adult."

The two matching brothers with the two matching sisters (Violet and Nora)

Poor John (my friend Susie's son) had a tough time but Calleigh was great at talking to him to distract him. I also showed him a picture of me with a missing tooth. So at least that's worth something!!

Girl after my own heart. Couldn't put the book down.

I love Brady and Violet's friendship.

Colby's group sang "Eye of the Storm"

The closing song, "Rescue Me"

Aubree's song was "Don't Worry About a Thing" and every one agreed it was the best song this year.

Brady's song was "A Million Reasons" and he was so into it, doing all the hand motions with gusto. He told me he was the best singer in his group!

We have also been busy with working on our house. Over the past few months we have: put wood on our master bedroom ceiling, put stone on our master fireplace, had a built-in built in our great room, tore down some dry wall in the great room/kitchen, and raised the sunken floor in what was the living room. Still lots more to be done but we are making progress.

Brady taking the hammer to the wall.

Using one of these baggies from Lowe's instead of a dumpster.

Built-in which still needs to be painted. Moved our living room furniture to the great room.

Raised the floor in the old living room and moved the dining room to it.

Some pictures of other stuff we've been up to:

Looking over the scavenger hunt results that I organized from Family Ministries at the church. Unfortunately the Grodacks didn't win.

Box day! Our curriculum for next school year arrived from My Father's World.

Finally found a teacher for Colby to do swimming lessons. A really nice guy originally from England named Luke. Colby is officially swimming!

Our ant farm.

This is what they eat, a tiny piece of carrot every few days.

Colby hanging out at Lucky Monkey today while older siblings went to laser tag.

My last week teaching Sabbath School for this particular group. They will all graduate to the next class in two weeks but I won't be back until August (many of the kids were missing).

Colby getting in some meditation.

The kids have taken to riding their scooters around the house and they begged for us to get Colby one which we did. He was SO excited!

Went to the funeral of one of my co-workers back in my working days. Bertha was a wonderful lady who worked at the hospital in accounts payable until she was 94!