1/2 way through

The orthodontist thinks Chase will get his braces off in December....yay!  That means, literally, only 12 visits total.  The original estimates from the other guys wanted reverse headgear, palate expander and this meant YEARS of treatment.  Chase's teeth already look amazing!  He's pretty fresh out of school and he said the newer studies are showing that only about 5% of kids actually need that extent of treatment as opposed to doing what we did and just wait for normal growth to fix some of it and then intervene for what may be left.  In Chase's case it was his ectopic eye teeth that didn't want to drop down, gap in his front teeth and crossbite.  None of it's there anymore.  He even got his inside wire off today and is close to getting the bumps off his back teeth.

Cole is only on his 3rd visit and only has bottom brackets so far.  He's only anticipating putting a few on the top to even it out a little.  We settled for good enough treatment over perfection to a savings of about $3,000+.  It will be barely noticeable in the end.  Cole's issues were a crossbite in his back teeth because of a molar that was turned on it's side and pretty bad crowding in the front lowers.  They literally zig-zagged across his mouth and all of this left him with a moderate overbite.  The turned tooth was worrisome though.  Same thing as Chase, they can eventually damage beyond keeping the teeth, which would cost us what we paid in their treatments anyways.  Cole first wire looked like a U when it went in and after it was attached to the brackets, it looked like a U with crimps in it and one big indent.  It had to go in a long way to grab that turned over tooth.  His front teeth are already lined up.  They're arched upward now, but he says they still need to come out because they were bent backwards and shouldn't have been.  He says once they come forward into more of a U shape, not a flattened U like they are now (after straightening some) his overbite will correct more.  His turned tooth looks really good.  It's still turned because, well, it has a LONG way to go, but it's definitely moving.  Poor Cole's in a lot more pain after each wire than Chase because his have so much further to move.  I asked if we could have done anything earlier with his bottoms and he told me that the bottom fuses around age 4.  He said there's no way you could anticipate this much at that age and this is the only situation.  I felt better about that.

In the end both boys only cost about $4,600 total.  That was after almost 5 years of shopping around, 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinions before deciding what route to do.  I asked tons of questions to understand what our choices were and realized we were better off waiting until now.  Now hopefully, we get a break before any of the others need braces.  Thank goodness he gives a 5% discount for each sibling and 5% for cash payment.

They're going to have some pretty great smiles!

A moment of growth

For mom.  Cole wanted to go to the local tractor pull.  His friend had just texted him that he was going.  So for him doing the dishes in return we drove him and picked him up.  He even got a 10:30 curfew.  I realize that's not all that late but he's only 15 and it was his first night out on his own.  He wasn't complaining either, in fact I think he might have been a little surprised.  He was waiting at the gate at 10:30 like I told him to so he followed the rules.  As long as he can keep his grades up and (per his own words) wrestling doesn't make him too tired he may earn some trust for more teenager stuff.  I'm not hoping for the going out part but happy with who he's becoming.  This growing up and letting go thing is hard for moms.

Rite of Passage

Jaemin had a rite of passage today.  At least for this area.  Jaemin and I got on the tube and tubed together while Brian drove the boat.  He wanted it faster and faster.  We only had to stop when his short, legs got stuck between the tube and the cover.  We did great around the turns and everything.  Helps that his mom is a seasoned tubing expert!

We didn't stay on the river long, but long enough to see a few trains pass through which totally thrill him.  He jumped off the dock and swam a little.  He did great for losing the nap today!  All the kids were pretty tired.  I'm not sure how many times Cole, Chase and Kaelin went up and down the river.

Lifelong lessons

are ones you have to learn the hard way.  But, the test of character is that you actually learn from your experience to not experience it again.

Blessing #4 chose to try her hand, literally, at stealing.  We walked in the door from Walmart and I handed her something to take in and she wouldn't take it.  She was holding her side and I immediately had a flashback to being in the store and she was holding her side then.  She does that sometimes, so I didn't think anything of it until this moment.  She eventually showed me the candy under her shirt.  And after a 5 minute prodding, she confessed she did, in fact, take it from the store.  Disappointed doesn't begin to describe the feelings we both had.  She's the child we had few fears for as she grows up.  But, we have to remember that all of our kids are human and WILL make mistakes.  I pray, though, it's not worse than this though.  The life altering mistakes are my biggest fears. 

So, I did what (I think) most parents would do and loaded her back into the car, took her back to the store and made her explain it to the manager.  The manager was great.  She got down to her level, explained that people go to jail for that everyday and they turn people in for that.  She told her to learn from it and thanked her for being honest and coming back to confess.  Then, she lipped 'thank you' to me and we left.  Needless to say she is being punished at home, but I'm pretty sure going there and facing it was a lot of the punishment.

Seoul depressed

Yes, I'm still trying to plan and budget our trip for 10 months from now.  I realize I've been working on this off and on for 2 years now.  There is SO much to think about and I've been sort of delving into our stay at Jeju and Gwangju and well, lets just say I gave up.  It's impossible to figure everything out that will work for us.  So, I went back to making my hotel list for Seoul. There's not much of anything for us and I can't find any prices for Gwangju, so I think we'll end up having to depend on a travel agent, which I was hoping not to do.

UUUGGGGHHH!!!!!

It really stinks finding something suitable for a family of 7!  You have to keep in mind, if you're used to only staying in hotels in the US the rooms in Seoul are MUCH smaller unless they're serviced residence apartments, like we stayed at when we picked Jaemin up.  However, one large enough, like Fraser Place Central, for us is over $450/night.  Ouch!  There's literally nothing else in comparison.  Either they just can't fit us or it's the same price to get us in.  It's also harder because you'll see a room that says 2 double beds, but you can only sleep 2 adults and 1 child max, according to their rules.  I can't even find rooms big enough for 4 of us, hoping to get connecting rooms for the other 3 of us. 

I found one alternative that we will go to if we have to and it looks nice enough, but it's up a very large hill on the side of Namsan and I think after a long day of walking that would be even harder on Brian and the kids.  It's a 15 minute walk up the hill, is my understanding.  But, it may be absolutely all we can afford.

Notice I'm trying to stay as close to the Namdaemun area as possible so we're not spending our entire stay on the subway.

New Addition to the Blog for Make a Wish

No, there's no update for Cole's wish, but I thought it would be a good time to add a link to donate to Make a Wish.  It's  great foundation and if you just Google wish stories, you'd be amazed by what some families go through and the joy a simple wish can bring to a very ill child or a child who has spent their life fighting or a child who had to live life differently because of whatever was handed to them to deal with.  In the future, I'll add other great organizations, but thought my new area "Great Write Offs", as in tax write offs, would be great to start with Make a Wish.

Make someone's wish come true.

Where do we stand on Korea?

We're there.  We now have just enough to go.  Now, we have to save to have enough for, at least, some emergencies in between and after now and then.  Can't be totally irresponsible.  I have received the last of my adapters.  I apparently ordered the wrong ones from Kmart and luckily when I went to pick them up they had gone on clearance for $1.  So, no biggie.  They'll work in Korea, just not well because they're Type C and probably a little too skinny.  I just picked up the other ones, Type F (I believe) from Westlakes Hardware  and they're the right ones.  We'll bring all of them with us so we're covered, since they're all very tiny.  I still only have one converter, but am not sure I really need more than 1 since most things are made dual voltage nowadays.  I've started my lists of carry-on items versus checked bag items.  Kinda fun.  The kids have NO idea how much planning and thinking is involved when there are 7 traveling to Korea for 2 weeks. 

I even bought a bunch of scooter skirts for the girls to wear, on clearance at Kohls of course.   It can be quite warm (HUMID) there in late May, early June, so I'm thinking comfort.  Can't worry about shoes at this point, but they'll be limited anyways.  Everything I buy myself, which isn't much, is with Korea in mind.  I even found the last of the sandals I've been looking for for 2 years now.  I finally found them on Amazon for $10.  The ladies of the house are pretty much ready.  Brian just needs some polo type shirts and maybe one or two more pairs of fairly nice shorts.  Jean shorts and athletic pants don't go over well over there like the men of my house wear all the time here.  I absolutely have to wait to buy the big boys' clothes.  They're at those growth periods where they could shoot up inches at a time, so they'll be last minute on shoes, shirts and shorts.  Jaemin...well I'll have to check his to be worn bin in his closet.  I don't know if he even has summer clothes for next year.  May have to raid the next 50% sale at Children's Place.  Since he lost his diaper last summer we got another year out of most of last year's clothes, but that isn't going to happen next year.  He'll definitely be in a size bigger.

While I'm SO excited that it's really getting close to being real, I'm still a little cautious since I know that all it takes is Cole unexpectedly needing his surgery or some large financial catastrophe and the dream is, at the very least, put on hold.  But, for now I'm enjoying the fact that we're planning on it and it is probably going to finally, really happen after so many years of saving, planning and budgeting.