New Nanny!

We just hired a new nanny today and his name is Christoph. Yes he's a "he". We're all very excited and feel quite confident that he is a great match for our family!

Give me 30 lashes

with a wet noodle for being such a slacker regarding my blog. Where do I start? How about a few bullet points:

~ My semester ended pretty well. My official grades aren't out yet but it looks like I earned a 3.3 GPA. Respectable but disappointing, especially because I missed an A in two classes by only 2 points!

~ After the last final the entire class (well, almost everybody) piled onto two rented trolleys and bar hopped throughout the city. Great fun was had by all, at least until the point when I left to catch the last train out of the city during the ice storm.

~ We fired another nanny. This time because she obviously had an undisclosed medical condition where she was fainting/passing out and we couldn't trust her to drive the kids around. Not to mention she had slept through the time to pick up Ros & John from school several times. We're in the process of finding our next (and hopefully last) nanny. It will be so nice when we can find someone who can become a part of the family.

~ Mitchell was home for the holidays and so was Jim so we had a nice relaxing time, despite the frozen pipes and mouse invasion.

~ Jim is taking Mitch back up to school as I write this because he leaves for a 6 day trip on Sunday. This will be the 3rd month in a row that he barely flew, that is until his days off. The company has the right to do that when you fly international but it's usually a rare occurrence. It's now happened more in 3 months than it has in his entire 13 years at United.

~ My big bro' et al are coming into town on New Years Eve so we can watch the Winter Classic together on t.v. (Red Wings vs Blackhawks on an outdoor rink at Wrigley Field). We tried to get tickets but to no avail. So I'll make wings and other good munchies and we'll make an afternoon of it in our warm living room. Unfortunately Jim will now miss it.

~ Next semester starts on Jan 5th. I have 24 credit hours and 35 contact hours. My classes include:
Physiology II
Histology II
Anatomy II
Biochemistry
Pathology
Comprehensive Care (radiology, perio, etc.)
Restorative Dentistry
Occlusion

~ I go on active duty for the Army Nat'l Guard on Jan 1st as the student recruiter.

I'll try to do a better job keeping this up to date, but if you really miss me you can visit my facebook page.

8 weeks closer ...

to graduation. Save the date, May 10th 2012. I survived a rough week of tests along with firing our nanny and trying to find a new one on short notice. I won't bore anyone with the school details because I'm too tired to relive them right now. I'm just happy to be able to report that I'm still doing well enough to be above the class average, and that's harder to do than it sounds.

That's a fact Jack!

OK, people are getting wind of my new job that is pending, so it's time to make the public announcement ..... I'm joining the IL Army National Guard. Yes, Brian, I'm joining the Dark Side and going Green, but I'll still bleed Navy blue. So, assuming everything passes the Commissioning Board's approval in November, here's the deal:

~ I sign an 8 year commitment in the reserves which begins counting down the day I sign, and after 12 months in the Guard, they will pay for school. So that will cover 2.5 years of tuition.

~ On top of that, they're hiring me as a student recruiter to get other students to sign on. I'll get full time active duty pay while only working one weekend a month (15 minutes from my home). And since it's in their best interest for me to graduate, most of my time drilling will be spent studying with lots of dentists around to help with any questions that I might have.

~ I will take a reduction in rank from O-5, but that happens any time you switch from an "unrestricted line" commission to a "corps" commission or vice versa, even within the same branch of service. I'll get paid as an O-3 over 20 years or an O-4 over 20 years while going to school. The board will have to decide which rank based on my prior service. I'm being told that it will probably be as an O-4 over 20, but I'm willing to go down two ranks to O-3 because active duty pay as an O-3 with 20 years of service is a hell of a lot more money than no paycheck!

~Since I hit 20 years in the Nav this Nov, when I do retire it'll be as an O-5, at a minimum, higher if I make O-6 during my time in the Guard.

~ I can't be deployed while in dental school, during a post-doc speciality program or during a residency. So, theoretically, my commitment could be up before I ever have to deploy. They have a written instruction that Dentists can't be deployed for more than 90 days at a time in theater, and then only every few years. So, as long as I join a group practice instead of opening a solo office, deployment shouldn't be an issue because I'll have partners to cover my patients.

~ Plus, if UAL should go completely belly up, my family will have 100% medical coverage! (Jim just got the "bump" down to a lower paid aircraft, thank you economy.)

Kind of hard to pass up. My motto used to be, "It's not just a job, it's a job on a big grey boat". Once we get all the documentation complete and get my commission switched over, my motto will be, "Not just paid, Army paid".





Army Training, Sir

Week 4 review is delayed ....

I finally took pix at school as promised previously, however, you'll just have to wait a bit longer to see them. I caught the nasty cold that everyone at school has been passing around. So, it's a shot of NyQuil and beddy-bye time for me.

Week 3 in review:

I'm 3 weeks closer to being a dentist, yeah!

~My physiology test went well, but we don't have our grades yet.

~I earned the high score in the class on my first wax-up, a 9.5 out of 10, at least that's what my instructor told me. I may have gotten an even higher grade but the instructor said, "We can't give out perfect scores". I'll take the almost perfect.

~We practiced mirror skills on our typodonts that magnetically attach to a head in the sim lab. My patient, Mr. Man E. Kin, was quite accommodating. This Monday we get to practice our mirror skills on each other. I have a funny feeling that my classmate won't be able to open as wide as Mr. Kin, nor will his cheeks stretch as far!

~Our other new found skill is mixing alginate. The technique is amazingly similar to mixing colored frosting when cake decorating. I knew that talent would come in handy some day, besides on my kid's b-days! We mixed a batch of alginate, took an impression of our finger, then poured a stone cast of our finger. We all felt pretty silly walking around the lab with our finger in a dixie cup waiting for the alginate to set, but we had to do this as a dry run before we take impressions of each others' mouths. That happens in a week or two.

~Anatomy lab has rapidly turned into a grind. It's still interesting, but none of us can wait until we get done with the torso and get to move on to the head. Maybe we won't come home smelling like "dead guy" as badly then. FYI, did you know that digging for lymph nodes in axillary fat is very parallel to isolating pumpkin seeds in pumpkin guts? I'll never look at my jack-o-lanterns the same again.

~This Thursday I have a paper due and another test, this time in BHD class (Biology of the Human Dentition). We'll be shown individual real teeth and have to i.d. them by their morphology. Should be fun.

And he's not even a teenager yet ......!!!!

But he will be grounded until he's out of his teenage years. Peter was going to stay after school and hang with some buddies. No problem. However, he conveniently left his cell phone at home. Fast forward a few hours, it's dark, it's raining and we don't know where he is. He hasn't called and his friend, Jake, isn't answering his cell or home phone. We get a hold of Jake's Dad, Tim, who just happens to be in Savannah GA visiting with his oldest daughter at college. Tim tried calling home and couldn't get through to any of the family. Enter the weird twist, all of Pete's shoes are at home and accounted for, but his backpack's not here, so we're pretty sure that he didn't sneak into the house while Jim, Ros & John were picking me up from an early train. Now we're really worried. Awful thoughts run through your head and it takes all your energy not to freak out but instead stay calm and think. So, we called the police. They came and took all his information, including recent pictures (these posted ones), his SSN and any and all identifying body markings. Right as the cops were leaving to go enter Peter's info into the data base so all the other cops could be on the lookout for him, he called home.

Turns out that he was at Ryan's and then Jake's and it never crossed his tiny pre-pubescent mind to call and update us on his location. Which wouldn't have been nearly as big of a deal if we knew more people here in town. And regarding the shoe mystery, he was wearing his old lawn mowing tennis shoes from the basement. So if you ever want to experience the most polar opposite and conflicting emotions all at once, just become a parent who's child walks in the door after you think they were missing. I, for one, don't recommend it.

And, yes I know, next time something like this happens there will probably be girls involved.

Week 2 in review ...

Nothing too eventful to report. We turned in our first graded tooth wax-up and had a quiz, neither of which have been returned to us with a grade yet. We dissected our cadaver's spinal column, once again it was very amazing. We opened the posterior side of the vertebrae with a chisel and mallet, then removed the dura mater to expose the actual spinal cord. Then we cut out a section to view the gray and white matter.

This week we dissect the chest and arm and all the neurovascular bundles that go along with it. We have a physiology test on Thursday, which should be fairly straight-forward, but we also have two projects due on the same day. Bring it on.

I'll post some b-day pix later this week when I need a study break. I'm off to bed, it's going to be a long week.

The week in review:

1. The tough "ology" classes have been covering material that is a review for most of us in the class. That will change soon, I'm sure. The first anatomy lab was awesome. I got to make the first incision on our cadaver, a mid-line thoracic cut along with two transverse cuts so we could retract the skin. What a rush!

2. We began our labs for the "Biology of the Human Dentition" (BHD) module of our comprehensive care course. This takes place in the "wet lab" and we work on a typodont (it's a set of fake teeth that can be taken in and out of the fake gums). We take out an assigned tooth, replace it with another that simulates a tooth that is already prepared for restoration and then we restore it with wax. This helps us learn tooth anatomy and structure, instrument uses, hand-eye coordination, etc. My first wax-up was on an incisor and it turned out okay. Fortunately this week our wax-ups weren't graded. I went into lab this afternoon for some practice and by the time I had restored that same tooth again I was really getting the hang of it. In fact, when one of my instructors saw it he said, "Oooh, that looks good, and your incisal edge is really nice". Woo-hoo!

3. My Sister-in-law, Janiene, purchased all my books for me for my first semester of school. How generous is that??!! Thanks Janiene!!

4. John lost his second tooth, this time his left mandibular incisor. That's two lost in one week, I hope this rate slows down because the tooth faery is getting tight on cash.

I'll try to take some pix at school so you can see what my life looks like there.

The Tooth Faery is coming!

Today in the car John lost his first tooth. The look on his face was priceless! I tried to capture it on my phone, but it's a bit blurry. The excitement in his eyes was amazing as he giggled about how fun it was to stick his tongue in the space and how he couldn't stop himself.


Moments after the big event.


This is soooo exciting!


I'm a big kid now!

And the journey begins ...

Today the UIC-COD Class of 2012 completed orientation week. It was actually really enjoyable. I was afraid it would be a bunch of really boring power point presentations, which of course there were a couple of those, but all in all, it was really well done. I couldn't have asked to spend my next 4 years with a better group of people!


The first day of school, I'm officially a D1!
(Note the lovely leg brace.)


Our orientation cruise. I love dentistry already!


Navy Pier from the "Mystic Blue".

Good news, sorta .....

I went to the orthopedic surgeon today. The good news is that my meniscus is not torn, so no surgery is needed! The diagnosis is a partially torn medial collateral ligament (MCL), a severe bone bruise and a strained patellar tendon. The bad news is that I could be in this lovely hinged leg immobilizer for up to 12 weeks. Ugh. Keep your fingers crossed that I'll heal faster than that.

Puck Cancer.

For the 4th year in a row, my hockey team played in the "Puck Cancer" senior womens hockey tourney this past weekend, and WE WON! It was a blast!


One thing that was different this year is that I got injured for the first time in my hockey "career". I hyper-extended my left knee and landed on the ice with my knee making a loud and painful popping sound. The good news is that there was only 54 seconds left in the championship game, so I really didn't miss out on any ice time. Bad news is that I'm in a full leg immobilizer and need an MRI tonight. The doctor thinks I either tore my MCL or damaged my medial meniscus. So, I've got THAT going for me. Should be quite an adventure with dental school starting a week from today. I can't wait to hobble from Union Station to the pink line "L" stop 4 blocks away for my commute. But hey, did I mention that WE WON the tourney!!

Sometimes ~ the light at the end of the tunnel, is really just another train.

Mitchell has been living back at home for over 7 long months. On Friday Aug 8th he moved back into residential treatment. I won’t go into the details as to why, let’s just leave it at: we don't have the ability to keep him safe from himself, nor do we have the ability to keep his siblings safe from him. My nerves, my patience, my emotions and my psyche are spent. Not to mention that my heart is broken that we couldn't make everything all right for our son. His birth mother just caused too much damage in utero.

G'ma and the cousins

Last week my Mom came to visit and stayed the week with us. We had a great time and the kids loved having her around. The visit actually began with a huge thunderstorm, tornado warning & power outage that lasted until afternoon the next day, but then the weather was great the rest of the week. So we took advantage of the weather and met my sister, two nieces and two great-nieces at the Brookfield Zoo. We had a nice morning followed by a picnic at lunchtime. Elise, my great-niece, loved hanging out with Roslyn and held her hand most of the time. Roslyn really loved having a big-sister-like role. They were really cute to watch while the boys tended to run ahead.

My schedule is in ......

I received my actual schedule today, complete with time, location and course directors. My 20 credit hours of courses meet an actual 30.9 hours a week. Mon, Wed & Thur are heavy on the lectures and quality time with our cadaver friend. Tues is comprehensive care all day long and Fri is lectures in the morning with nothing formally scheduled in the afternoon. As nice as it would be to start "happy hour" at noon on Friday, my happy hours for the next few years will be when my head hits the pillow for sleep. Anyone know if they make straight jackets in "scrubs blue"?

Latest with John and George.

John has his first loose tooth! It's his right mandibular central incisor (or tooth "P" for all you dental types out there). He's very excited about it. He has also found his athletic niche ..... swimming. We've starting calling him "Otter Boy" because he took to floating on his back so quickly. He can float forever and in the midst of all sorts of chaos at the pool. And his freestyle and backstroke are really good for just learning them. He passed level 2 swimming with flying colors and will definitely zoom through level 3. In fact, he learned so much so quickly, he only has two new things to learn to pass level 3 and that's treading water and the basics of the butterfly. He's quite amazing. He's as adept and coordinated in the water as Roslyn is on land. Ros still has four things to master before she passes level 2, but she's doing just fine.

As far as George, my lovable dufus dog, he got into the garbage about a week ago and we thought he ate the BBQ rib bones. Which he probably did, but it turned out that what made him very sick (from both ends, but I'll spare you the details) was the corn cobs that he ate from the trash. Fortunately, he appears to have puked them all up and is about 90% back to normal. I had to take him to the vet and make sure that he didn't have any internal "blockages" that required surgical removal. What a knucklehead!!

Fall Classes

I forgot to mention last week that I registered for my fall semester. I have 20 credit hours total, but the contact hours will be far higher. I don't know exactly how much higher because the actual weekly schedule has not been determined. Our entire D1 class takes all the same courses at the exact same time. All 66 of us will get to know each other very well! But as an example, I do know that the 4 credit hours of Anatomy & lab actually meets for 8 hours each week, therefore, 8 contact hours to earn 4 credits.

Anatomy 315 & Lab - 4 credits
Comprehensive Care 314 - 6 credits
Oral Histology 451 - 4 credits
Microbiology for Dental Students 322 & Lab - 4 credits
Human Physiology for Dental Students 321 - 2 credits

Orientation is the week of Aug 18th and classes begin full speed on the 25th. We start dissecting our cadavers on day 1, very cool. The undergrad anatomy course that I took had a prosected cadaver. This time we get to do the cutting.

Hinsdale Memorial Hall.

Yesterday, Hinsdale had a party for the 80th b-day of the village hall building. There were free hot dogs, moon bounces, inflatable slides and face painting. Not to mention all the public service vehicles on display, bands & freebies being given out. Ros & John had their faces painted. (Peter & Mitchell are too cool for that now). Roslyn's is a bit hard to see but it's a faery princess adornment. You can also see that they both got new summer 'doos. Roslyn's was long enough to donate her hair to Pantene's hair for wigs program. They only require 8 inches of hair instead of the 10 inches that the Locks of Love program requires. Today we watched the village parade. It was actually a good parade and I usually find parades boring. I may take the kids to see the fire works tonight if they don't drive me to drink before I have to drive them there. Obviously, Jim is flying this weekend.

Bozo the Clown died Thursday.

And I never got to go on his show like I wanted to. I was still holding out hope all these years that I could win a tall insulated yellow cup with his picture on it. I rock at Bozo buckets. I guess this is truly the end of a childhood dream. And I don't think he ever had any little clowns. How sad.

Happy Independence Day!

Finally, W signed the new GI bill into law, yeah! Unfortunately, I don't qualify for it, but I'm still really glad it's available for those who do qualify.

***********Happy Birthday America!***********

~Patrick's Open House~

Patrick is my nephew and Godson. He has earned a 4 year academic scholarship to Michigan State's engineering program. Yeah Patrick!! Plus, he's just a great guy. Love 'ya Peejmonster.

Here's the graduate, relaxing in between greeting visitors.

Patrick & my Mom.

Patrick & his Godparents, Uncle Andrew & Me.

Supporting the home team, Go Spartys!

Patrick's not only going green for the team, he's going green for the environment. This is his new on campus ride.

The post open house, pre-postparty chill out. L to R: Brandis, Jenny, Camela, Helen & Sammy. And lets not forget the pups in the background, King, Gizmo & George.

Cousins

Laura came to visit briefly with her girls one Saturday before we moved. Here's the pix of the kids sitting still momentarily.
Back row L to R: Mitchell & Peter
Front row L to R: John, Roslyn, Elise & Laura with Julia on her lap















And of course this pix includes George as Julia was petting him.

Jim's B-day.

Here's a month belated pix of Jim and his big birthday present ....
a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar.

Hey, hey they're the Monkees!

Here's a pix of Peter & John making monkey bread, a recipe that Pete learned in his "life skills" class (a.k.a. home ec). It turned out so well that they are banned from making any more of it because it's irresistibly fat butt. Butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, bread dough ..... mmmmm. Not to mention it made Roslyn look like a monkey.

RIP George Carlin

George Carlin died Sunday of natural causes. He was a master at verbalizing the obvious logical things that most people missed because they were too obvious. Here's one of his ideas:

George Carlin's Solution to Save Gasoline~
Bush wants us to cut the amount of gas we use. The best way to stop using so much gas is to deport 11 million illegal immigrants. That would be 11 million less people using our gas. The price of gas would come down.

Then bring our troops home from Iraq to guard the Border. When they catch an illegal immigrant crossing the border, hand him a canteen, rifle and some ammo and ship him to Iraq .
Tell him if he wants to come to America then he must serve a tour in the military. Give him a soldier's pay while he's there and tax him on it. After his tour, he will be allowed to become a citizen since he defended this country. He will also be registered to be taxed and be a legal patriot.

This option will probably deter illegal immigration and provide a solution for the troops in Iraq and the aliens trying to make a better life for themselves. If they refuse to serve, ship them to Iraq anyway, without the canteen, rifle or ammo.

Problem solved.

GI Bill 2008

You can help petition W to pass the new GI Bill, instead of vetoing it like the numb-nuts that he is. Just click here and add your name to the petition.

The new bill will cover 4 years of tuition at the most expensive state school, $1K a year for books and a monthly living stipend for all vets that have served at least 1 day of active duty since 9/11. There's all sorts of other perks for the vets in the bill. Please truly support our troops by helping get the new bill passed and pass along a link to everyone you know.

Red Wings win the 2008 Stanley Cup in 6!!

Tradition has it that the players of the winning team take turns bringing the Cup home with them for a while and showing it off. Some have eaten their morning cereal out of it, others have placed their babies in it, Stevie Yzerman is said to have taken the Cup jet skiing. If you won the cup, what would you do with it?

History lesson.

Today Ros & John were watching a t.v. program. There was music playing in the background when the camera panned back and showed a turntable playing a record. (See below for you young pups.) Roslyn's reaction was, "What IS that thing??"

Just put me in the museum.

LaGrange, Hinsdale, whatever.

Pete's hockey coach, Anders, is close family friends with Mike Nylander (both from Sweden) who used to play for the Blackhawks, but last season signed a 4 year contract with the Capitals. Mike rented out his house in Hinsdale, but the renters were leaving this month. It was going to be empty so he wanted Anders to move into it at no cost, which meant that Anders' house was going to be available to rent. We were going to move into Anders' place in LaGrange next month, but Mike found a new renter for his BIG place in Hinsdale. Sooooo, Anders and his family are staying put and we had to do a last minute scramble to find a place to move into. Craig's List to the rescue. I found a 4 bedroom place in Hinsdale with a huge yard at a reasonable price and a great landlord who is letting us sign a 2 year lease that we can renew for another 2 years after that. We're supposed to sign the lease on Wednesday. Once that's done we can register the kids for school and I can send out the new address to everyone.

Oh yeah, the other news is that the tenants for our Crystal lake house signed the lease yesterday and we're supposed to get it back from them today.

So, once again it all appears to be working out just as it's meant to be. Anyone want to help us move in mid-June??!!

Chicago is #1 .....

... for the nation's highest average gas prices, $4.07/gal. UGH! There's even a station at Fullerton & Ashland that's selling gas for $4.49/gal for regular and $4.69/gal for premium.

Birthdays!!

First off, I want to wish a belated 7th birthday to my niece, Ella! Although her b-day post is late, she actually received her present from her God-father, U. Jim, on time. That's a rarity for us! I wish we could have been there. Happy Birthday Ella!


Next, a big Happy Birthday goes out to my nephew Shaggy (a.k.a. Rudi). Now you and Errin need to move to Chi-town as planned!!

Like God-mother, like God-daughter ...

Today we had the HD music channel on in the background and the band Cream was doing a reunion concert. Roslyn walked in the room and said, "How can such old guys make such nice music?".

Flashback about 20 years or so and I was babysitting my brother's kids. We had VH1 on in the background and the video Kokomo by the Beach Boys came on. For those of you who don't know, that was the only song of theirs that was getting airplay in the 80's because it was written for a movie soundtrack. Having never seen the band before, my niece, Melissa, took one look at the Beach Boys and said,"Wow, look how old that new band is!".

And that is just one more reason why they are a perfect God-mother/God-daughter pair!!

Question:

If April showers bring May flowers, what does April SNOW bring??

Answer: A VERY annoyed Gail.

Yes it was snowing today. This weather SUCKS!!
See below for an overdue update of our lives.

Update.

Besides the snow, here's what's going on in our life:

1. Our house still is not sold, but we have 2 parties that are interested in renting.
2. Last week we decided to definitely move to Phoenix so I could attend MWU College of Dental Medicine.
3. This week, United announced that it is going to double the number of planes that it's retiring. Continental Airlines no longer wants to merge with UAL because of the "corporate climate" and just how crappy it's doing financially.
4. There's no way to predict when Jim would get a bid to L.A. or S.F., which would mean commuting to Chicago for a year or more.
5. This week we decided to stay in Chicago-land and I will attend UIC College of Dentistry. This is the last of our "final" decisions as I officially withdrew my acceptance to MWU this morning.
6. As I got off the phone with the Dean of MWU-CDM, it began to snow. God really does have a sick sense of humor!
7. We'll be moving to the south side as soon as we can rent out or sell our house here in Crystal Lake.
8. Our first choice suburb is LaGrange, but Westmont, Downers Grove, Lombard & Elmhurst are on the list also.
9. We will forever be North-siders, so No, we will NOT become Sox fans. Go Cubs! Besides, the odds of the Tigers and the Cubs playing each other in the World Series are slim to none. And as they say, Slim just left the building, so I have no conflict of interest issues.
10. We're excited to be about an hour drive closer to Michigan for our trips home. I guess we'll be shopping at the Bolingbrook Ikea now instead of the Schaumburg one. Yes, Chi-town has 2 Ikeas.
11. Peter is ecstatic to be staying here and will play for the Chicago Mission again in the fall. He'll have to do a lot of his travel with families on the team because of my course load. So all of you Michiganders ... I know it will mean a lot to him to have you at his Detroit games.
12. And speaking of Detroit games .... Jonathan, you're still in charge of keeping an eye out for the 2008-2009 Red Wing's schedule. We'll need to plan our annual Euchre tourney/Red Wings game now that nobody will need to fly to Phoenix for the game!

Scholarship.

So, today I was working on my financial aid package for school this fall. I knew that going to dental school would cause us to hemorrhage money, but when you see the cold hard numbers in writing, only one word comes to mind, and it rhymes with DUCK. Time to brainstorm and research alternative financing.

What about grants, you say? Well, finding free money is like, uhm, pulling teeth.

How about scholarships, you ask? Sadly, I've been unable to find any scholarships for "middle aged white mothers undergoing a career change".

Then I had an idea ....

.... a wonderful, awful idea. Why not create a scholarship for myself? One where all the money goes directly to me.

After all, there's more than just tuition to worry about. There's instruments to buy,


and clinic fees,

and text books to purchase.

So tell all your friends and family to donate today to the new official "Send a middle aged, brunette, Polish-Ukrainian, Bull Terrier loving, hockey playing, mother of 4 to dental school" scholarship. Don't delay!!

(Cash, clothing and alcohol donations accepted.)