Braces and a Busy Week!

Last weekend, Luke had a baseball tournament. Saturday was freezing, almost literally, in the morning. The wind chill was in the 30s. Not baseball weather and not Florida weather! The Sunday was even worse, with a steady wind. I knew if I went I would get a cold sore, so I opted to sit those games out. The team played well and ended up finishing the tournament in second place. While they did that, I took the girls out to get lacrosse cleats. We had fun driving the new car.

On Monday, I had a doctor's appointment. Thomas took Luke for a consult with an orthodontist. He was expecting just the consultation and the "come back in a year" kind of visit. However, the orthodontist said that Luke needed to get braces right away. He had a tooth removed last year and his dentist didn't put a spacer in, which screwed up the spacing in his mouth. Thomas saw the xrays and felt the orthodontist was being honest about the urgency. Luke's quick consult turned into getting braces right then and there. It was crazy! I think Luke was in shock. He said maybe it was good that it happened the way it did because he didn't have much time to worry about it. 

Holding Thomas' hand for moral support. There wasn't room for Thomas to stay in the back for long and he felt sad leaving Luke alone.

He chose pink for his first bands, his favorite color.

When the big kids got home and saw him, they were shocked. So were his classmates and teammates. Everyone wondered why he hadn't told anyone. It was because he didn't know! He is sad that he didn't know his last gummy bear would be his last gummy bear, at least for the next couple of years.  Anna is still in her braces, so our oldest and youngest are both in braces. Anna is hopefully on the home stretch. Luke is seeing our fourth orthodontist. The first was in Maryland, no issues, that was really retainer, pretreatment stuff. Then, we had the one here. He did great for Kara and Jack, but we didn't like how he handled Anna (blogs have been written on that topic). Anna saw another one here, and we have minor complaints, but nothing significant. However, it is a bit of a drive, so we wanted to try someone closer for Luke. We found this one and it had great reviews, so we scheduled the consult. So, that is the story of 4 kids, 4 orthodontists. Let's hope Luke's treatment goes smoothly! 

Lacrosse tryouts were all week. They were over 2 hours long every day after school. Considering they get to school at 625 and the practices ended at 5, it was very long days for the girls. They mostly enjoyed it. We found out today they did not make Varsity. They have never played, so that wasn't a huge surprise. It looks like they will be on the JV team. We are excited to see how it goes.

Jack had band practice after school on Tuesday. He went to conditioning for track on Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately for him, while track ended up 4:30, he had to stick around until the girls finished. Track tryouts are Monday, the 29th.

Thursday, I had to go to Lakeland for my dad. He had been in the hospital and was being discharged. I had to do a lot of running around to get things set up for him. There was a huge stress moment when the place he was going said that he wasn't financially eligible. He is paying out of pocket (he has used up his Medicare days) and they had told us the day before that he had to pay for 35 days in advance, which totaled over $12K. I had gotten the check, brought it to them and they said they would arrange for his hospital discharge. It is the same place he lives. His permanent home is in the assisted living facility, but this was to stay at their nursing home/rehab. Anyway, after I dropped off the check, I got back to the hospital and they called to say they wouldn't take him after all. Ultimately, they did take him, and I still don't know what created the disconnect, but it was stressful. 

My Aunt asked for a selfie :)

Today, Saturday, Luke, Anna, Thomas and I went to Volcano Bay. I love going to a waterpark in January! Last weekend it was so cold and today the high was 80. Weather is weird! We had a great time.