Wisdom of the Teeth

This week Tessa had her wisdom teeth removed - I am glad I only have four children and thus only have to go through this experience four times!

Testy Tessa
On Wednesday afternoon Tessa had her four "boney impacted' wisdom teeth removed by an oral surgeon. We opted for an oral surgeon this time vs. a dentist after Cali's experience with her wisdom teeth (more on that later) The nurse warned me that they really had to dig to get them out and she was going to be sore and swollen - they were right. Not only was she swollen she has bruises under her eyes!


Five days later Tessa still does not look like herself. The first day (when she was half way coherent and not being onery because of the pain) she looked in the mirror and commented "I don't even recognize myself.' Still today at church, the brother in the front row turned around and asked who Tessa was (half joking but half serious)! She is still in a lot of pain, we are trying to manage it with motrin instead of the oxycodone she had been taking. Trying to prevent an addiction as she is the child who use to ask for motrin as an afternoon snack!


Cali and Clark both had their teeth removed by a dentist who instead of an anesthesia used the drug halcion - I must say Cali and Clark's wisdom teeth experiences were a lot more amusing as a result.

Crying Cali
They say that many times the reaction people have to halcion is similiar to how they would behave if they were drunk - in that case we now know that Cali would be a very emotional drunk.

As we drove out of the dentist's parking lot after the extraction Cali burst into tears, crying and sobbing. She was convinced that the dentist (a family friend) had used no pain medication and that she had felt EVERYTHING. In between her sobs she told me that we could no longer be friends with him because he was a very MEAN man! She sobbed all the way home - I tried not too laugh too much but it was really hard! Once home she began sobbing and crying for her Jamba Juice that a friend was bringing over "I Want my Juice!" sobbing almost uncontrollably. Her recovery was a rough one too - in fact the dentist admitted it was the hardest extraction he had ever done and they actually ended up going up into her nasal cavity so she was put on an anti-biotic which we discovered later that night that she was allergic to!

Cali has refused to give me permission to post a photo of her after her extraction - needless to say she didn't look great!

Crazy Clark
Clark also was given the drug halcion. Because it can make you quite incoherent they suggested that I give him the drug a few hours before his appointment but to put him in the car first and let him fall asleep there since he was a bit bigger than I am and I might have trouble getting him into the car once the drug took effect. So we put him in the car and I gave him his drugs but two hours later, 30 minutes before his appointment he was still wide awake. I called the dentist and they said to give him another pill. We arrived at the office - Clark walked in on his own, sat in the waiting room and began looking at a magazine. Still it seemed like the drug was having no effect.

Well - a few minutes later it hit - sitting in the waiting room there was a cute, blond, high school girl -Clark proceeded to lean over in his chair, stare straight at her and ask me in a loud voice - "Is she hot mom, is she hot?" I smiled and explained to the girl that he was on drugs. He then proceeded to roll out of his chair and onto the floor - now this was a very small waiting room and Clark was taking up the majority of the floor space.

The doctor came out quickly and helped Clark walk back into the office. All went well and they got him back into the car for me to go home. I realized I was out of gas so needed to go across the street to the gas station. As the car was being filled with gas (remember we live in Oregon and they do it for you here!) he proceeded to jump out of the car and began dancing around and singing. We now know that Clark would be a very funny drunk because if you know Clark, you know he doesn't sing or dance! I got him back in the car and he started demanding to know where his teeth were - he wanted his teeth because he wanted to make a necklace out of them - he asked over and over again. (I quickly called the office but they had already disposed of them).

On the way home he assured me he was fine and that he was good to drive over to the high school and go to Lacrosse practice. I assured him he was not! When we got home I needed to go to the pharmacy to fill his perscriptions but was afraid to leave him home along - thinking he would try to leave and drive to school. I took his car keys with me and called my mom to come down and babysit him. Clark has no recollection of any of this!

Lovely Logan


O.K. so maybe he doesn't look too lovely but it was a lovely, easy extraction. Logan also had his wisdom teeth removed by an oral surgeon. He was sore and swollen but other than that he was the easiest wisdom tooth extraction we had - sorry Logan no funny stories! But I do have a picture.

So my week was full of changing ice packs, dispensing drugs and sewing. The deadline for costume completion is this coming Saturday and I have A LOT of work to do yet - wish me luck.

Boy Update:
Logan and the Young Ambassadors performed in Logan Saturday night and did a workshop before the show. They also had a fireside tonight. He sounded tired when we talked to him on the phone tonight.

Clark had a boy's night on Friday night with his roommates to Benihanas and then a group date last night to make empanadas with one of his buddies who went to Argentina on his mission. Clark's stake received a new Stake President today - President Monson's son.

So if you made it through all four wisdom teeth experiences - click on comments below and let us know whose story you like best!

Bittersweet Week

This was a bittersweet week - one full of lots of activities but also some sadness with the passing of our Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley. The girls and I just returned from my parents where we watched a recording of the funeral. (for some reason our recording didn't work:( The girls were not home on Saturday so were unable to watch it. What an amazing man! The funeral was a wonderful tribute to his life, his character and his service.

I spent a lot of time grocery shopping this week in preparation for the Stake Relief Society dinner I was in charge of Friday night. We feed about 350 women - originally we planned on 250 so am glad we decided to up those numbers. If you are interested in what we served and the recipes check out my other blog. I had an amazing committee of women and all ran fairly smoothly except when I realized I had left all the salad dressing in the refrigerator at home - fortunately Jim came to the rescue and ran home and got it!

We had a wonderful program after the dinner - a woman, Tayva Patch, who is an LDS actress was the speaker. She has been in a lot of different LDS movies including playing Mary, the mother of Jesus in The Testaments and Lucy Mack Smith in The Restoration. She has played many other women of the scriptures. She shared her experiences with getting to know these women and playing them. It was very good and interesting.

For our YW activity this week we had a lesson on etiquette which I taught at our house. Tried to make it fun for the girls and we even did some fun napkin folding tricks. It is amazing how many people do not know how to set a table properly! (the napkin should never touch the silverware!)

Thursday night Cali performed in the "Give My Regards to Broadway" show at Westview. This is where all the kids practice their acts that they are taking to Regionals which was this weekend . Cali sang a song from "Into the Woods" - '"On the Steps of the Palace" Of course she did an great job and looked beautiful!

Friday was spent cooking and preparing for the dinner Friday night. Saturday I got to sleep in - yeah! Cali spent the day at Regionals and finished up at 3:00 - just in time to get home and get ready for MORP (Prom spelled backwards and the girl ask boy dance) She had an hour to get ready before 28 kids (yes 28!!) showed up at our house to take pictures. With a handful of parents taking pictures too we had a houseful.

Tessa spent the evening having a "Spa Night" with a group of friends - they gave themselves facials, did each others makeup and did their nails - Tessa came home with black fingernails!

Jim and I spent the evening at a going away party for a family in our ward.

Boy Update:

I think it was a sports watching weekend for both boys - Blazer game on Friday and Superbowl today. Clark and Brooke went bowling Saturday night and then up to Salt Lake to Brooke's house for Sunday dinner and to watch the game.

Logan was a bachelor this weekend as Shayla was gone all weekend with rehearsals and auditions. Think he was lonely. He did get his laundry done and his apartment cleaned though!

Finals Week

We survived - finals week is over and I now have my kitchen table back. During finals week it becomes "study central" - covered with the computer, piles of books, notebooks and notecards as well as "to do" lists.

Since Jim was out of town most of the week we did our dining at the kitchen island (although to be perfectly honest that wasn't much "dining" going on!) Jim is arriving home this evening about 9:30 p.m. or so. He was in Spokane for several days this week where it was 10 degrees, home for one night (long enough to take out the garbage thank goodness) and then flew out to Alabama to attend a Mardi Gras Parade and the "Senior Bowl" in Mobile with his company and advisers he works with.

I was the presenter at book club this week. We read the book "Moloka'i" which I highly recommend. It is about the leper colonies on the Hawaiian Island of the same name. I love historical fiction and found the book fascinating. It is a tragic story but one of courage, strength and fortitude! I also loved learning more about the history of leprosy etc. One of my beach babe friend's daughter worked in a leper colony this summer in India where there are dozens and dozens of leper colonies still in existence today. People still live in the leper colony in Hawaii today and I also found an interesting video on You Tube about two women who still live on the island. Click on the link and watch it - you'll also notice the only two members of the LDS branch there.

Thursday Grandpa Best went into the hospital for his knee replacement surgery so Jim and I hung out with Grandma at the hospital while he was in surgery. He did well. It looks like he will come home tomorrow - Monday. He has been up walking around on it and the pain seems to be under control. Saturday they ended up giving him some units of blood as his blood pressure dropped real low but he looked nice and pink today. Tessa made cupcakes after church and the girls and I went up for a visit and took him a plate of cupcakes. He needs his other knee done too so they will see how this recovery goes first. So now he and Grandma are both special card carriers and get to be scanned by hand when they go to the airport! (Grandma for her pacemaker)

Friday we celebrated Cali's acceptance to BYU by going to a "chick flick" - 27 Dresses. A cute story about a girl who is a bridesmaid 27 times! The girls then drove out to the Expo Center with me to help me set up for our big Scrapbooking Expo on Saturday and then I hurried home to get ready to go to the Gala for American Mother's downtown. This is a dinner and program where they announce the new "Mother and Young Mother of the Year". I am on the board so needed to make an appearance but I snuck out early as I had a big day on Saturday at the Expo Center.

Saturday was our yearly "Celebrate Portland" which I host (I hire an event planner to do most of the work!) We had 1,700 people in attendance this year which was our biggest year ever. It was a long day - 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. with a little freezing rain in the beginning to make things exciting but it was a good day.

This morning,Sunday, started out exciting when the phone rang at 9 a.m. (we all slept in) to let me know the girl who was to teach our Young Women's lesson had been up all night throwing up so I got up to "throw" a lesson together.

Cali got up about an hour before Sacrament and said "Hey Tessa weren't you suppose to give a talk in Sacrament meeting today." - Yep - she was and we had totally forgotten! So I got on the phone to let the bishopric member know we are total flakes and had forgotten - fortunately the names hadn't made it into the program this week so the whole ward didn't have to know we'd forgotten!

Boy Update:

Work, School, date, work school, date, repeat. So their life goes.

On Monday, Martin Luther King Day Logan and Shayla went with a group snow shoeing up on Y Mountain and had a good time - lots of snow!

This weekend Clark and Brooke went to one of her brother's basketball games and on Saturday they went with a group to Salt Lake to go ice skating and then out to the Melting Pot for dessert.

Clark sent me a group picture from their date and I promised I would post it on the blog for cousin Eric because he wanted to "make the blog"! Logan and Shayla spent Saturday night going out to dinner and then to the Evolution of Dance show at BYU (I guess that was the trade off for being willing to go snowshoeing on Monday!)