Picture Problems

I don't know why my pictures are getting cut off.  Because I haven't investigated.

So you'll have to click on them to see the whole thing.  Its worth it.  Believe me.

Also, this may not be an issue in email.  Again.  I have not investigated. 

What I'm saying here is:  The pictures may or may not be cut off.  If so, click on them because you will definitely want to see 15 pictures of my kid. 

Peyton and his buckets

 It started with a fudgesicle.  As all good stories do.

 

And then the hand finds the mouth.  

As most of Peyton's stories went.

 

So handwashing in a bucket of water seemed like a logical idea.

 

Until someone.  Possibly me.  Said "oh just take off his diaper and put him in it".  

 

And he thought it was fantastic!

 

And still does.

 

18 to 8

Sometimes I go through the old posts to remember how far back my stories have gone and I get caught up in the old stories.  They're cute.  The things I got all excited about were cute.  Generally I got all excited about Peyton, and I still do, so I can't cringe too much about that.  Look how much that cute boy has grown up since my first posts, though:

18 months

(almost) 8 years

This comparison I LOVE!

I love the bucket pictures enough that I think they deserve their own post.  

Stay tuned.

All I Wanted Was To Be "Cool"

This post actually goes with "The Day My Face Exploded" ...

Back in February, I finally convinced a dental professional (or two or five) that I had something abnormal going on behind my nose.  Sounds weirder than it was.  I felt like I had a baseball behind my nose.  Turns out it was a small (benign) tumor that looked like a beenie weenie  (no joke- I saw it)  hanging out on top of tooth number 8.  For those of you who are not familiar with the numbers associated with your teeth, thats the top front right tooth.  Kinda important for biting into things and for the overall aesthetics of your whole face.

After pics of the surgery:

Going... (Day 1 after surgery)

Going... (Day 2 after surgery)

KABAAAMMM!!!  (Day 3 after surgery)

Going down... (Day 4 after surgery)  (Yes, I was rotting in the same place on the couch for like a week)  (we fumigated the cushions immediately upon my recovery)

That was three months ago.  The beast of a weenie had eaten through the roof of my mouth and the bridge of my top teeth so bone graft was placed to regrow the bones.  Roof of the mouth is growing back like a champ but the bridge under my nose, not so much.  So I just had another surgery to place more bone graft and remove a tooth (super sad about that).  No pics from that one because no one is to see me without a front tooth.  (because Brandon calls me a pirate and that may or may not be hitting close to home)  I have a prosthetic to help with the aesthetics. 

Its actually a single denture.  

I'm a 32 year old with a denture.  

I'm probably more depressed about that than is appropriate.  

Turns out dentures are actually retainers with teeth attached.  Or maybe just mine is, I do not know... 

I realize the severe mental issues I'm about to reveal... but confession: I always kind of envied the kids in middle school with the slight speech impediments due to braces/retainers.  Seriously I do not know why.  I thought they were like, super cool, though.  (I pretty much thought everyone was.) 

All the cool kids had braces.  

And $100 jean shorts.  

So.  Cool.  

PSA to all KIDS: LOVE YOUR NATURALLY STRAIGHT TEETH!!!!!!  

Also... those shorts are hideous.  

(the shorts of 2015 are okay.  but WAAYYY too short.  Put some clothes on girls.)

I had NO CLUE that the slurred speech of the 90's was due to a large(ish) piece of plastic sheathing their mouths.  

It totally sucks!!!  

Totally.

I'm completing day 4 and I'm not used to it.  I can't taste foods like I used to.  

I can't speak like I used to.  

I went shopping for t-shirts for my 7 year old this morning and I was carded at every store when I tried to use my credit card.  Normally I judge people for not carding me - I get that I'm of small stature - but today... I was totally with them.  4'11" person with retainer-speech.  Better card that one.  Until they actually looked at the face - and then the ID ... 

OKAY!  She's good.

(so.  good.  please, just sign and move along.)

I'm not sure how this morphed from oral surgery into 'bah! i'm old!" but it did.  Thats old age for ya.  

Opening Day of Swimming. For us.

look at this boy.  so grown up.

... also.  thats my toe.  toes... 

he's almost 8.  can you believe it?

An Anderson Christmas Vacation 2012

Actual excerpt from an email sent over this vacation:

Well, I'm sitting here in bed next to sleeping Brandon, looking out the window at a gorgeous, snow covered mountainside.  Brandon is terribly sick - a bad cold, I think.  ... 3 year update: it was STREP THROAT!!!!!

Last Thursday (a week ago) at noon, I got a call from Peyton's school that he had a fever and had to go home.  So I went & got him but just took him home.  He had no other symptoms, just a fever, so I figured he was just exhausted.  But since he had a high fever, he couldn't go back on Friday.  so Kristine agreed to keep him while I went in to work for our Christmas party.  Brandon catered it & I left as soon as everyone was served.   I was supposed to go to Peyton's school for his Christmas party & I was going to go even though he wasn't there bc I needed to help.  But the other home room mom called & told me not to come so I just dropped off my stuff at her house & went & got Peyton.  This was the bliss of Kindergarten.

Thursday afternoon, we had gotten a voicemail from the owners of the cabin in Antonito, CO who said a blizzard had knocked out the power, water & heat & that we couldn't come.  We were supposed to leave Saturday.  So Kathy spent all day Friday trying to find somewhere else to go.  By late Friday night she still hadn't found anything.  We did Christmas at her house after Brandon got off work at around 9.  

Sometime while we were there, Kathy got a call from the original cabin owner, but she had dialed Kathy by mistake.  They talked for a minute & Kathy told her that we hadn't found another place yet & the owner said we could go ahead & come because they had been able to get everything back on.  So late Friday night we were back on for the cabin in Antonito!   So we packed all night & left at 8ish Saturday morning.   Peyton still had a fever - he had it off & on since Thursday - & woke up with drainage out of one ear on Saturday.  So we decided to stop at an urgent care clinic when we got to Amarillo & get him some antibiotics.   We got there & stopped & it took about an hr to be seen but he was seen. The dr said it was a good thing we stopped bc both ears had infection & the draining one would have probably burst if we had driven into the mountains without him on antibiotics.  Great.  So we got the antibiotics & headed out again.  But by the time that day was over we were all exhausted & didn't want to try to drive into the mountains in the dark so we stopped in Santa Fe, NM for the night.

this is the hill we couldn't make it up

By morning Peyton was feeling much better- we all were.  We ate a good breakfast, went to Walmart for the refrigerated items we needed & got chains for the cars.  Then we headed for the mountains.



We made it to the very last hill on the directions - where the cabin owner said we might have trouble getting the cars up the mountain.   We did the best we could but the Jeep Grand Cherokee (read: city Jeep) wasn't going to make it.  We tried for probably an hour with the chains before deciding to carry the stuff up the hill to the cabin.  It was like the scene from The Holiday (ffw to 1.05).  (Seriously.  Its been 3 years and it's still mentioned).  But once we got everything we really needed for the night it was ok.   The cabin was COLD & the water hadn't been turned back on at the house - which she told us how to do.  So once we figured out how to work the house & got a fire going, it wasn't too bad.

Sometime in the evening, I discovered that I didn't bring Peyton's medicine up.  So Kristine & i suited up (WISH I HAD PICS OF THIS!)  and hiked down & up the hill for it.  We brought up as much as we could carry with us & decided it wasn't TOO bad, so we took orders for a second trip & brought up as much as we could again.   Remember, this hill is so steep the jeep wouldn't make it up.  It's snow packed, not icy, so it really wasn't slick.  Just steep.   

this is the road we hiked

Monday Brandon & I let Peyton play in the snow & Brandon decided to give Kathy's car a try up the hill.  We suspected that hers would do better than Joe's bc she has all wheel drive, but we didn't want to risk it in the dark.  So Brandon and I gave it a try & sure enough, it went right up!   We are all trying not to dwell on all the miserable trips up the hill carrying gear.  Truth be told, we aren't sure hers would have made it any earlier than it did.  All the conditions had to be just right.

So Tuesday was Christmas & I woke up with a horrid cold.  I watched Peyton open his stocking & see what Santa brought & went back to bed until 1.   

Joe & Kristine played with Peyton in the snow that afternoon but I wasn't up to anything.   They packed their car by carting the stuff back down the hill bc they had to go home on Wednesday.  

We were afraid that if we moved Kathy's car back down the hill, we wouldn't get it back up.

They left before we got up Wednesday.  We decided to go into town on Wednesday to get out of the cabin & I was feeling better so I went.  We had a good day.  We looked around Taos & went to Walmart & came back to the cabin in the evening.   By then Brandon had the horrible cold but he thought it was going to be annoying but ok.  

He planned to ski Thursday.  

 Woke up Thursday (today) and he has a 102 fever & feels terrible.  He has this thing about wanting me to sit in the bed beside him when he is sick.  So I'm sitting here while Peyton watches a movie on the computer (no tv here).  It's been about 3 degrees all day so far but P REALLY wants to play in the snow so I told him I would go out with him at 2.  Brandon is due for some more med then & I don't think I can hold off P any longer.   Kathy is spending the day scrubbing the downstairs today.   We figure Brandon will feel better tomorrow & will want to go out so we need to do our cleaning today.  Plus she REALLY doesn't want to get sick!!!!

Despite all the sickness and very weird cabin debacle, it's been a great trip!  It is an absolutely beautiful cabin WAAYYY up in the mountains and the view is spectacular.   It's stinking cold so I think everyone but me has some cabin fever but I'm perfectly content to sit here & look out the window.  I brought my magazines I haven't had a chance to read.

Goodbye Edmond! I did love you!

I actually think we had more flooding in Norman than Edmond, but the snake article DOES say "Edmond, North of Oklahoma City."

This is out of our balcony in Norman in EARLY May.  Way before any "actual flooding":

This is actually the first and most minor but I think the point is valid.  Boo.  Snakes.  I live way more out of town now than I did in the days of the Snake Hunter.  :(  Good news: I live on the second floor.  Bad news: THIS  (In other news: this is in Thailand.)