I got my first cavity when I was in first grade. I remember having the laughing gas. Then I'd get cavities when I was a teenager. I had four cavities at once. Not fun. I haven't gotten a cavity in a while, knock on wood. I'm not afraid of the dentist. They don't sedate me for check ups or cleanings.

I got my first when I was eighteen, after they stopped giving fluoride unless I asked. I ask now.

I believe I have had two over the years, but I need to get back to the dentist for an overall checkup. I wouldn't be surprised if I have another.

Hello everyone. . ^^

Thanks. Jacob started crying for him today. So i let him put some flowers on his grave. Didn't think it'd be this hard to lose a guinea pig. :(

My mom was awesome at dental care (minus the telling us to brush/floss thing) ... We went in every 6 months from the time we had our first tooth... I still wound up with tons of cavities, my first showed up around the time I was Eleven and now all of my back teeth have a filling or cap or root canal :/ my teeth have very deep crevices I guess and I have weak enamel too I guess... All around I have a bad mouth I guess... Dillon wasn't taken to the dentist until last year (that makes me angry, it's akin to neglect if you ask me) and he only had one cavity.. But he has trouble with his TMJ and his wisdoms...

I'm worried I'm going to need more caps/root canals... :'( cause my teeth are starting to bug me again... Of course we cancelled our discount plan with comfort dental because we weren't using it and this happens T__T I hate the dentist... I'm not a fan of pain and I feel all the work it seems like T__T the root canal was the best... Hard drugs lol... The caps I start feeling them digging at my gums and I wig out T_T regular cavities I feel everything...

I floss, brush, and use mouthwash every night. It's just something I learned early.

I am trying to get the boys to do it every night... Mikes is my worst he thinks that he can just throw mouthwash in his mouth and that his teeth are clean... Not so not so... I need to get Ellie a gum cleaner... I haven't remembered the last times I was at the store...

I think I am going to work on activity cards for the boys.... To help them remember that they need to do chores, and clean up their room do homework etc...

Once Terra is a little older, I plan on making a chore chart for her. I'm hoping by the time she's two she'll be old enough to "get it". Right now she passively helps me pick up, and I don't expect much out of her at this age. She'll grab some of her plastic foods and put them where they go, etc. I keep at her.

I had a lot of sealants when I was a kid, and that helped prevent cavities. I also went every six months, and I plan on instilling the same care to Terra. I probably should start now. 18 months is probably later than she should have gone, but we brush her teeth carefully so I don't feel guilty for not promptly getting her in at 12 months.

I've been trying to find some effective way for me to get the kids to do what they need to do daily. As I sit here there are still two plates on the table from breakfast this morning and one cup. It should have all been clearned away. There's a fork from dinner last night, and a small ice cream container from snack yesterday. I'm annoyed at how much they AREN'T helping at all around here. :/ (Scott and I don't eat at the table for lunch and during breakfast we're bustling around in the kitchen getting the kids lunches together, so the only time we're all at the table is dinner, and I told them about the fork and ice cream thing yesterday and they swore they would take care of it...I started on the dishes after dinner and Scott got them going with baths...and nope, mess is still there!~ ./annoyed)
Must find something...

I don't remember exactly how things went when Mr. Fluffy Pants died last year. It took a couple of days for it to sink in to the twins that he wasn't coming home. Even after the miscarriage Melody asked a few times about baby Isabella (Melody was convinced it was a girl, which was okay by me, because a girl name was the only name the dads had decided upon). She's gotten to the point where she understands that baby isn't in my belly anymore, but she doesn't understand why I don't get a new one already. :roll: kids.

I started taking the kids at about a year old to the dentist. All my friends kids had teeth already, and mine didn't soooo I wanted to make sure every thing was okay. And it was, my kids just take longer to get teeth...and apparently to lose teeth. Kura has lost 3 so far and she's 7. The twins are 5 and they haven't lost any. I think Kura had lost her first tooth right before her 6th birthday. In any case, we've kept up with their appointments because I don't want them to be scared of the dentist later on. And they all like brushing so it's not too big of a deal. They just finished going over a tooth unit at school and they all came home with new tooth brushes and toothpaste (Mom! It doesn't have floridide! ...you mean floride? NO. FLORIDIDE!) and little floss picks so they're all into teeth right now. >.>

I found a website that makes custom order plush guinea pigs so now jacob is sure he wants one. trying to talk hubby into it. haha i like that name, Mr. Fluffy Pants. we have a grey kitten we've been calling fluffy butt. :XD

This TV show called Phineas and Ferb had a black and white cat (white on top black on the bottom) named Mr. Fluffy Pants. The episode was awesome and amusing, so when we'd acquired a third cat that was black and white and super fluffy...he just kinda got the name. I wanted him to be named Bruce Wayne...but the name didn't stick. He was... a Mr. Fluffy Pants. lol

Haha that's too cute! I bet we've seen that episode and i just don't remember. I do like that show, one of the better kid shows i think. I even get pretty into it! :lol:

I think I've talked about these cards before... It's essentially a simple drawing/simple word to help them with the basic schedule of the day I always run into the issue of making things simple... Cause where for daycare I would make a sign for circle time, play time, clean up time, nap time outdoor time etc they were just basics while Mikes needs to get up, brush his teeth comb his hair and put on his clothes, and put his PJ's on his bed and leaving one of those steps out means he WON'T do it cause it didn't SAY to do it... I also run into the problem that his days are never freaking the same anymore... I flippin hate boy scouts it is taking up 2-3 days a week and they second day is NEVER the same and NEVER a short amount of time, and almost ALWAYS eats part of my ONE day on the weekend I get spend time with him /bitter... But anyhow it is meant to set a schedule of things but with Mikes wacko schedule I can't make it simple it would take up a whole wall :/

I love the show Llonka. It's amusing. (: I'm pretty picky about what my kids watch because I don't want to get annoyed at the voices/whatever and I don't let the kids watch TV on their own so whatever it is they watch I have to be able to stand!

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First oddity: Earlier this week Scotts half sister friended him on facebook. This was a girl that would purposely start crying and blame him and he would get shoved in a closet for "hurting" her.
Second oddity: Scotts brother called- the one he grew up with with his mom none of this half sibling nonsense- and then called again because apparently it was urgent. Turns out their dad has some sort of terminal lung cancer. I asked Scott if he wanted to go down there, or if we all should since it will be his fathers only chance at ever meeting our wonderful and beautiful children, and he said he wasn't sure. I feel bad for not caring...but this is the man that allowed his son to be treated like shit just to hurt their mom. The man that let his wife BEAT them because they weren't her children and forced them to stay in closets Harry Potter style so long as he had his drugs... I don't think he deserves to see his son again, I don't know if Scott can deal with it, I'm leaving it up to him though. I'll make whatever arrangements he wants done. I'm curious. I've never seen him, or met him. Our birth announcement was returned to sender. He stopped paying child support when Scott was 10... I feel like other than the donation of sperm that gave him life this man shouldn't be allowed to mean anything to Scott because he didn't help one bit. After Sakura was born Scott said he was thankful for his dad, because it showed him how NOT to raise his child.

I don't know what to do or how to respond to this. I guess I'll know more this weekend, his dad is supposedly calling. O.o This will be...interesting.

I don't want to be in those shoes Mellie... I've heard tale that Dillon's dad has been asking questions about him and our kids... :/ but that was near Christmas... I am pissed off that his mom told him anything she shouldn't have said he has 2 grandkids... She shouldn't have said we own a house or that Dillon works cause now we are getting his debt... :/

This mama is on verge of crying... We are losing our food assistance next month... Thanks to Mike's dad holding off paying for flippin ever and then finally paying again for almost 4 months all at once... We were hurting for the money so bad that we repaired things that the kids needed like clothes and shoes and stuff... And now we are losing food... I hate that this is counted against our total income. Because it isn't for that... Particularly from a man who NEVER pays... When he does it is usually a god send and it is usually purged in a matter of days on stuff we've been putting off for lack of money... I should have never gone back to comcast... :( Now I am in a contract with them... And it will cost me more to get out of the contract then to pay every month... I don't know if what we are saving on paying every month will be enough to feed a family of 6... It's only $200 and that is about how much I spend per grocery trip and I go grocery shopping 2-3 times a month... Not to mention Bryan doesn't listen when I tell him to slow down the eating... :( He is going to have to... Or he's going to have to leave... I'm at a loss... I guess Dillon and I will have to sit down and figure stuff out tonight... We are suppose to have company, and I am feeling less like visitors now.....

@Mellie
If there is a part of Scott that would regret going, he probably should. If he feels he will be fine with his dad dying without him having last words (positive or negative words matter not), then perhaps he shouldn't. I dunno what I'd do. I'd either take the chance for a verbal lashing, or a chance to air it all out. I dunno. I'm not Scott obviously, so it's probably far different! This is his last chance, though, hey?

@Jaz
Ours got cut, too. I think we'll get a little over $300, and like you we spend over $200 per trip. It costs to eat healthily.
It also bothers me that the child support you don't receive at regular intervals is counted. It doesn't surprise me, though. They say to report any income that's in excess the second it comes in. They're very strict, and they don't care if the people don't know it ahead of time. :/ I worked a lot of cases in my internship where innocent families with good intentions owed the government in back payments of $4000+ for not reporting additional assets. Frightening.

Definitely sit down with your brother, too, and tell him you guys can't afford it. :/ No one can live on that much.

Is there a reason he can't work? If there is, fine, but if there isn't...?

We are loosing ours completely... I do believe I should be able to press the through out next month to get it back... We get A little less then $600 a month and now it's GONE...:'( I've been struggling with an anxiety attack since 3PM when the mail came :/ Dillon and I know how we are going to deal with it.... I am a food pack rat it would seem... And we have some minor money left over from our tax return which thank goodness does not count against us... So we are just going to have to be careful over the next month, depending on how well we do the first couple weeks I honestly don't want to go back to them... It's like a disease... You feel like if it were to ever go away you would die... I have to be careful because we do have the bit left from the the return I don't want to say I can do it without but then find out that we only made it because we had a fall back... :/ My head is reeling so bad I've talked myself circles a billion times...

My brother CAN work... He just hasn't found a job yet.... >.>;; Two months now he's been living with us and the only place he applies is online.... ):< Part of me wants to blame the crappy economy, the other says Bryan dug his own grave... He is being looked over because he has a GED not a high school diploma and employers prefer the diploma... That is HIS fault that he chose to screw off and do drugs and not go to school during the day cause he was too busy sleeping off his high.... But our own system is against him too... Our unemployment rates are outrageous... My best friend's husband lost his job because our mall decided to tell Nickles and Dimes, get ALL new games or get out... I also know he had done drugs 2 weeks after moving in with us... So he may have screwed himself there as well since he had an interview with a decently paying job. And mysteriously they "haven't processed his test results" though he "says" that they didn't do a UI on him either.... living with a sibling is draining.... But I will be talking to him tonight... The wee ones come first and if he take food out of their mouths he goes... Period...

Well he didn't call today, so I guess it's happening tomorrow. Regardless, I'll be supporting hubby. I just don't like the idea of his dad walking into his life again. We talked last night and Scott was saying that he should have done more over the years to keep in contact. Uh...no? He was a child! It's the fathers responsibility to make contact. Send Cards, call, pay the damn child support, show that you care about your son. Scott hated his step mom, probably still does, the woman was horrible and treated him like shit. Any self respecting person would try to stay away from that as much as possible. His father should have tried harder instead of ignoring his existence. So mostly I'm going to make sure that Scott doesn't blame himself for his fathers failures. This mama bear is apparently really protective of her hubby as well as her kiddos. ^^;;

I really hate how they do food stamps. It seems silly to count child support as part of income. It's there to help support the child. And why don't they divide up the payment that he sent into the months that he DIDN'T send? It would drop the payment amount considerably, and probably allow you to keep the food stamp money that you obviously need. It's just...it's not right. :/ I'm sorry I can't do anything to help either of you. </3 I hope that things get easier. :heart:

I have some awesome friends... And a creepily devious brother... I am letting him do what he can to help and turning a blind eye because I don't like the idea of what he is doing. No he's not selling drugs or anything that bad what he is doing really isn't even illegal... It is just terribly dishonest... And if it were me, I'd fear the what it could do in the long run to my family... But we will make it through... We are all pretty adaptable... And now that my attack has subsided I am feeling a lot better...

I'm very protective of my family too ... period... I think that is why I am having such a hard time with my brother... The thought of him going back to what he was scares the crap out of me... But I've had nightmares of Dillon's dad trying to get to him and my kids. In the dream I had just given birth to Sean (who I was still pregnant with at the time) and his dad came demanding to see "HIS" grandson... I stood on the hospital bed and started chucking things at him... And spouting that this was MY husband and MY son... And if he didn't leave I'd kill him... I'm pretty sure I have some anger issues floating around in there... But when he called my mother in law asking questions I told Dillon it was up to him if he wanted to see his dad and let his dad meet our kiddos... But I told him it would be on my terms... I got expert rifle and small bore rifle in JROTC... Won the turkey shot 4 years running.. I don't imagine it would be hard to learn to shoot a small hand gun... If he tried to lay a hand on my kids or my husband I would not hesitate to shoot....

For me the subject has never really came up... My dad's been gone since I was 15 over 10 years now.... I haven't seen or heard a peep from him since he left... Part of me longs to be his little girl again, but the other is full of hate... Most of me hopes he stays gone so I don't have to make that decision... Best of luck to you Mellie... I am sure he appreciates you standing behind his decision because if you weren't it'd make making one even harder <3.

I reached a point in my life (before Terra) when I knew I wouldn't be okay having my dad die without having some since of closure or reconcile. I was the only sibling of four that was on strong terms (or any terms, really) with him when he had his aneurysm last year. All of my siblings were panicked and distraught. I was, too, since they all came to me for support while I tried erasing the frightening imagery from my mind. However, like I said, that was about me and my own needs at that time. I was at a point where I wouldn't have been okay to leave things as they were. It was a great decision for me but may not be for others.

Definitely keep him close, Mellie. Your reactions sound perfectly normal to me. He had a very rough go of it, and hell, it is NOT his fault not his responsibility. Poor guy. :( I feel so bad that he feels that way...

Jaz, I hope the finances end up okay. I hate getting the help. I hate the reviews, I hate the discussions. However I know I'm working toward something bigger and Terra's health is most important to me. I'd have to work if we didn't get the help (full-time). I know eventually you'll go back to work, once Ellie is old enough. If you have to take help 'till then, there's no shame in that. You're working on raising three terrific children, and that takes money. It's a full-time job regardless of how much wage work might be in the future.

Chi your awesome... He have a gift with telling people exactly what they need to hear <3 Thank you...

You know what I find exceptionally upsetting? When this subject came up of father's walk out of children's lives... How many of us were effected by an absent father... :/

Yep. I'm grateful that we're extra focused on healthy child rearing rather than repeating the patterns. :) We're awesome!

My dad didn't leave until I was... 16 or 17 so I didn't really deal with an absent father. He stayed because of us, when he did leave he said he'd been wanting to for about 10 years. (Yeah, not really something you want to hear...) I think he just didn't want to deal with child support for 4 kids. cheapskate. haha. When he'd left I'd already moved into the defiant teen stage where I didn't want anything to do with my parents anyway. Though it did throw me in closer with my mom, which helped a lot when I got pregnant. >.>


Patterns are only worth repeating if they're pretty. xD

My brain is melted. I've been reading and doing coursework since 9am. Luckily I'm done after the 4 1/2 hours. Ugh...

I need to try and fight Terra down for a nap. She fought the first one. xD

lol Mine just woke up about an hour and a half ago!

I hope she goes down easily for you! <3

I think today will be a story day for us. I may be coming down with something and I don't feel like running around all day. @[email protected]