I just want to go to bed

I took Sophie in for her orthodontic checkup a few weeks ago. The last time we were in they decided she was further behind schedule than they originally anticipated, so we were thinking maybe early next year. But when I took her in he said "she's ready," and they set up an appointment for one week later! She only got them on the top for now. There are still a couple baby teeth on the bottom that need to come out, plus the bottom doesn't need as much work. She'll get them on in about 6-9 months. She had been so excited to get them until she realized that she'd be getting them on the day before her sleepover with Aunt Lark. Then she was nervous she would be in too much pain to enjoy it, or wouldn't be able to eat anything. Poor thing! She was in a little pain the day of/after getting them, but she refused to take any medicine (she's got a little of her mom in her). She does not do drugs, she told me several times. I think the sleepover was a good distraction for her. I haven't heard her complain any since. Oh, and the part she was most excited about was choosing the color for her braces. She ended up going with purple. While she was getting them on, I got to sit and listen to the orthodontist and another mom rant about Halloween and Easter. I was in good company.

The next day we met Elsie in Centerville (stopped at Smoochies to get Sophie a smoothie), and then I took the girls up to Logan. This was Elsie's first sleepover! She didn't make a sound the entire time she was in our car, but the minute we got to Lark's the real Elsie came back out. The magic potion I put on our car worked! Lark had requested a photoshoot with the invitees, so I took care of that before I headed home.

I know you're thinking I've forgotten all about my house. Truth is, we decided we like to do other things besides work on it every minute, so it's slowed way down. And it's a material possession. It doesn't make me happy to show it off. I will show my husband's hard work when we have something to show. Our bedroom is still coming together. Sophie was going crazy having her room in a bit of disorder, so Brandon hurried and finished her's up the other day. It messed up my beautiful paint job when he ripped the door frame off, and I had used all we had so I have to go get some more paint, but we put the room back enough that she feels safe. She is my little clutter bug, so I was very surprised to see her get so worked up about a mess. It was good, and I got to talk to her about how good it makes us feel when things are clean and put away. One of our side projects was getting the carport cleaned off. Brandon really doesn't want to park outside another winter. The chickens moved several weeks ago, and as I was looking at the empty coop one day I had the thought that I could turn it into another little shed to store our bikes and stuff for the winter. We had all the old doors laying around, plus some other scraps, and then Brandon came and took the coop apart which gave us more materials. It's quite the little pieced quilt of a shed, but I think it will work. And my patio is all cleared off! The horses got out one day while we were gone. I don't think the neighbors were happy about it, but they haven't put the horses back in our field since. Now I feel like we really have our land.

Saturday we went to a family history expo. Chloe had volunteered to server refreshments at it, but when she got there they had so much help that they sent most of them away. They showed us the new family history discovery centers they are planning. Chloe thinks Grandma Lark will be amazed.

I don't like to talk about homeschooling. Actually, I don't like to talk about much of anything controversial because it's... uncomfortable. But I so admire those who are bold and able to speak their minds. Well, the other day I read a blog post that resonated with me more than anything has in a really long time, and I thought maybe I could share it here-- We are going to home school our kids... But if you don't feel like reading the whole article, here's a point that I have tried to make to people:

Many of us screamed from the hilltops when Obama set forth on his plan to seize control of health care. Yet we seem to have taken it for granted that the government ought to control education. We don’t want any bureaucrat telling us what pills to take, but we’ll sure let them tell our kids what thoughts to think. We don’t want them controlling what we put in our body, but we don’t seem too intent on disabling their ability to control what’s put into our child’s mind.

Or my version, "We don't want socialized medicine, just socialized children."

I'll leave you with a cute little thing from Sophie (I really wish I wrote down her stuff more often). Yesterday she was cleaning out some boxes and came across my old yearbooks. She found the senior superlatives where I was voted "cutest smile." After chastising me for not telling her about that before, she asked if Brandon had a yearbook. She wanted to go see if he got voted "coolest hair -- or something like that."

Charleston & Savannah

When you tell people that you are going on your dream vacation to Charleston, South Carolina, be prepared for a lot of WHY?s. I found it quite astonishing that the people I associate with are unaware that Charleston is the Top Destination in the World. It's actually only held that title since 2011, but I've wanted to go there for at least 20 years. It first appeared on the list of top US destinations in 1993 -- so that would be about right.

We decided this would be the year to make it happen, in honor of our 15th anniversary. It's also a little awkward to tell people you're celebrating your anniversary, and then when they ask you what day you have to say... Uh, it's in December. But I plan my vacations around weather, and this was a great time to go. OK, I'll correct that -- the first few days were ideal, but then it did get pretty warm. The only problem was that we didn't pack enough shorts, and took too many pants. I even took a couple sweaters!

I'm just going to link to my album so you can see all the pictures with lovely captions. But here are a few that I didn't take.

A highlight of our trip was getting to meet Suzanne. She is a cousin of Brandon's biological grandma whom he never met. I met Suzanne online several years ago doing family history work. She was full of all kinds of information, since she grew up with this family in Chicago. She now lives in Charleston, so we met for lunch. She is such a sweet lady.

I originally planned to split our time between Charleston and Savannah more evenly, but then I found a great place to stay in Charleston that offered a weekly rate. It was cheaper to stay there for the full week than to do just 5 days, so we had a short visit in Savannah. The full week in Charleston was so nice and relaxing, though! Without much time to see Savannah I decided to go ahead and just book a tour. But in searching for a tour, I found this couple that does photography tours. I am so glad I booked them. It was totally worth it. Not only did we get a tour of Savannah, but they were really into architecture so they told us all about that, and they shared all their photography knowledge with us, and we got a photo shoot out of it! They shared a couple sneak peek pictures with us, but the final edited ones won't be ready for a couple weeks.

And no, this was not a birthday trip. Strictly anniversary. I got a new computer for my birthday! I am one spoiled girl.