Austin
Follow-up on Austin's tooth accident: we heard back from the oral surgeon that he was willing to pull out both the baby tooth with the cracked root and the extra permanent tooth. That was good news! I scheduled a consultation with the oral surgeon. When he looked at a 2D x-ray that the nurse took, he noticed that the broken piece of the root was hardly visible. He also examined Austin's mouth and observed his baby tooth with the broken root was more stable. With this new data, the oral surgeon decided that he needed a {very expensive} 3D x-ray to get a better look at the placement of the teeth and the damage done from the accident to see if the oral surgery was absolutely necessary. He said the longer we could wait on the surgery the better in terms of the anesthesia and his very small mouth. As long as there was no infection and his tooth was stable, he would want to postpone surgery. After the 3D x-ray, Austin and I left not knowing the results because the doctor needed time to analyze.
I got a call Friday afternoon that the oral surgeon felt safe postponing the surgery. The cracked piece of the root was all but dissolved due to the permanent tooth above it pushing down. As long as an abscess doesn't form, the tooth doesn't become more tender or change colors more than it has, then he said we could hold off on the surgery. This is such great news! We will continue to hope and pray that things stay stable and we can hold off on this surgery as long as possible!
Bryson
He is playing his first season of baseball. We signed him up with a different league than what we have done in the past. The league that Caleb and Carter have played for does machine pitch at Bryson's age (40+ mph speed). Bryson doesn't have the same natural athleticism and drive that Caleb and Carter have so we put him in a league that does coach pitch. So far we like the league and think it is a great fit for Bryson. He had his first game last Monday night. The very first play of the game, the batter hit a pop-up to Bryson in the pitcher position and he caught it! (In full disclosure, Bryson didn't even have to take a step. It was literally right to him. But he still had to stick his glove out and make the catch!) He had a strong first at-bat and hit a hard hit right over 2nd base. His 2nd at-bat he struck out. He played the pitcher position twice, catcher twice, and shortstop once. There are at least 4 kids better than him on the team that have played for 4 to 5 seasons, but Bryson definitely shows some potential. We didn't realize he would play catcher so Matt hadn't worked with him on that yet, therefore Bryson did not do well at stopping the ball. He did do well at throwing it back to the coach pitching, which not all kids can do. Bryson ended up getting the game ball for his first game! Great start to his season. Hopefully he continues to improve.
(sweaty baseball hair)
Carter
A lot of Carter's games have been rained out, so even though his league started much earlier than the other boys' leagues, he has only played 2 games. Matt is coaching his team again and says that Carter is his best defensive player. He never has to tell Carter what to do with the ball. Carter is "in" the game and knows where to throw the ball to make the play. The team is struggling with pitching this season. Carter isn't able to throw enough consistent strikes yet, but really wants to pitch so he's set a goal to practice regularly this season on his own in order to improve and earn a spot as a pitcher.
I also wanted to record one of the sweetest things that Carter has ever done. Caleb's birthday, August, 22nd, was a very stressful night with a back-to-school meeting at Caleb's school, plus I taught an hour of piano lessons after school. My parents had picked up Caleb after school to take him out to select a few books at Barnes and Noble for his birthday. After piano, I dished up the crockpot meal I had made for dinner, then ran out the door. Carter was in charge for a bit until my parents got back with Caleb, who was going to babysit. I thought the back-to-school night would be an hour. It was close to 2 hours! Matt had a late night at work so he wasn't home yet by the time I got home. When I got home, all the dishes were either in the dishwasher or washed up drying by the sink. I immediately texted my mom to thank her for doing my dishes--I assumed she had cleaned up when they brought Caleb back home. To my surprise, she said they were already done when she came back with Caleb. Carter had cleaned up all on his own! Not typical for a 9-year-old! It is one of Carter's gifts that he sees a need and steps in and helps. When Matt is out doing yard work, Carter is usually out there voluntarily helping him. A few weeks ago, Carter went out and mowed the backyard all by himself! (Well, he got about halfway done and then had to go to baseball practice.) Carter is also quite competent in the kitchen--cracking and scrambling himself an egg, putting things in and out of the oven, etc. I LOVE this side of Carter. He can be the sweetest kid....when he's not fighting with Bryson and when he and I are not on the piano together!
Caleb
Things are looking up for Caleb in terms of football in the sense that he is liking it more. He enjoys playing in the games and doesn't complain about practices anymore. (It also helps that practices are only Wednesday through Friday now.) His team has won 2 games and lost 1. He plays wideout on the kickoff line and also plays in the defensive line. We assumed he would be offensive because he's a fast runner and doesn't have experience tackling. He doesn't play a ton, there are about 35 kids on his team, but he does play a fair amount. I've seen him get a tackle and attempt another tackle on a kid two heads taller than him. :) I've been to one game and Matt went to another.
While football may not be where he shines, he is an all-star on his soccer team. Matt is assistant coaching, and I have actually not been to any of his games yet this season. Matt says that Caleb has great ball control, speed, and touch and that he never gives up on a play. Caleb admitted that he thinks his conditioning in football has really helped him soccer. It is looking like it will be a losing season though in terms of his team. The age range for his level this year is '07 - '05 so he is playing against some very mature 9th graders. He also has some newbies on his team this year, whereas at least one of the other teams have been playing together for several seasons. Hopefully they will show improvement over the course of the season and win a game or two.
Caleb has had some tough lessons in responsibility this year with school. He is used to relying on me to hold his hand in schoolwork--a liability I didn't mean to create. With him being the oldest and stemming from the decision to push him on to school as an August birthday instead of holding him back, I've been very involved in his schoolwork to make sure he succeeds. In my defense, I try to be involved with all my boy's schoolwork to make sure they are understanding what is being taught and supplementing at home when I need to. Caleb has been depending on me too much though so I've pulled back over the last month and told him he needs to be more independent in figuring out some things on his own. However, without me hovering, he has chosen to procrastinate his assignments, which has led to some late nights with him getting 6 or 7 hours of sleep due to waking up early for football practice. We have had many discussions about starting early on assignments or working a little each day, but it's not sinking in for some reason. He finally was grounded from his phone this past weekend because he made the choice to come home and play games on his phone for 45 minutes on Thursday, then ended up staying up till 11:30pm getting an assignment done that he had known about for almost a week! He also had a busy night with a soccer practice that night, which I wouldn't have had him attend if I had realized the extent of the assignment. Hopefully he will utilize his time better and adjust to being more responsible for his learning.
On another note, I had plans to go do baptisms at the temple on a Friday that happened to be a day that school was cancelled due to Imelda. My friend I had previously made arrangements with took Austin + 2 more boys, and Caleb and I did baptisms together. It was a great way to start an unexpected day off of school!
Matt
Coaching baseball + assistant-coaching soccer + intense work days with helping the new-ish business be successful + seminary = a sick husband for at least the past 4 weeks with congestion and cough from not getting enough sleep and a husband that is just not himself in terms of energy, helping around the house, and yard work. I'm not going to lie. It's been tough. Year 2 of Matt teaching seminary and I now strongly think that men with long work days should NOT be called as seminary teachers or he should have a partner so he's only preparing 2 lessons a week instead of 4. The time seminary takes is hard on our marriage and hard on our family. Matt has too much on his plate. He enjoys teaching! He really does and has had some wonderful experiences with teaching/relating to the kids (freshmen again this year), but it is too much on top of his work day and the coaching that he wants to do. He loves coaching and being involved with our boys' sports and doesn't want to give that up--especially when no one else volunteers to coach. Despite his busy life, Matt has been a rock star about trying to keep up with helping with the kids at night, doing dishes, and tidying any messes. Where he has sacrificed is his sleep; he doesn't get much every night. Understandably, he falls short in getting to the bigger yard projects (mulching, re-sodding due to getting hit by cinch bug this year no matter what bug spray we used to fight it, power-washing the driveway that we've received two letters from the HOA about...all of which I'm willing to do but is dependent on using the jeep/trailer etc.). Our yard is in a sad state right now, which is something we both very much care about.
On top of his busy schedule, Matt has also spent the last two weekends helping out for a 10-12 hour day with flood victims due to Imelda--mucking out homes and assisting people as needed. I really appreciated that the Elders Quorum president called Matt and said he could not sign up for the 2nd weekend. Instead he needed to stay home, spend time with his family, and take care of himself so he could get better. Then someone from the stake presidency called and asked Matt to be a team lead again that next weekend. So off Matt went again, making a huge difference in the lives of those who were affected by the storm.
Driving through high water in Vidor to go help--1st weekend
Orange County--2nd weekend
Me
Preschool is getting better day by day in terms of the behavior of one little sweet, but stubborn girl. I'm also teaching piano to 8 students this year including Carter and Bryson.
Last Sunday was our primary program, which I had a huge part in as the primary music leader. My personal goal was for the kids to know the songs well enough that I didn't have to hold words up. The children sang 9 songs in the program: Come, Follow Me vs. 1, Baptism all 3 verses, Master the Tempest is Raging vs. 1, Did You Think to Pray? vs. 1, Gethsemane with hand signs, Did Jesus Really Live Again? all 3 verses, Stand for the Right/I Will Be Valiant Medley, The Church of Jesus Christ Medley, and finishing off with I Will Be What I Believe. The overall theme for the program was how different people in the New Testament were valiant and how the children can be valiant disciples of Christ too. I teared up while leading the last song as it's just so powerful and the youth stood up from the congregation and joined in on the Army of Helaman part. Unfortunately several youth (and adults) were missing the day of the program because they were helping with flood victims. I was really sad to have so many of the youth gone because it wasn't as strong without them, but overall the program went great! It's nice to have the 1st year in this calling under my belt.
With Matt gone helping flood victims, these last two Sundays have been extra stressful. Here's how Sept. 22nd looked: entertaining the kids Sunday morning, getting to church early so I could play the organ, primary program during church, teaching primary music 2nd hour, running kids home, going back for special musical number practice for our upcoming Stake Conference, going back home, throwing a frozen pizza in the oven, eating dinner as a family, dropping my kids off at a sweet friend's house who lovingly volunteered to play games with my children until Matt got home from Imelda clean-up while I went to the first Noel Christmas stake choir practice, which I would have opted out of except I said yes to helping out on the piano during sectionals so they were depending on me. The next Sunday was similar (minus primary program) except Jared and Kari were so nice to feed my family dinner! We will see if there is a need this weekend for helping flood victims...
Other than teaching preschool and piano and my busy calling, I spend my time hanging out with Austin during the day and running kids around at night!
This is definitely a busy time of life right now!
