Brackets & Wires & monthly payments, oh my!

Back in the Spring of 2010, our dentist mentioned that we ought to take Samuel to visit an orthodontist. We had already figured as much and had begun researching local doctors when he told us that. Samuel and Savannah, unfortunately, got my teeth. Their baby teeth were TINY & really crammed into their mouths, so when they started pulling them & the adult teeth grew back in their place, it quickly became obvious that there wasn't enough room for all their teeth and orthodontics would be necessary. (Sarah, however, seems to have escaped the clutches of that part of my genetic make up!)

At that time, Savannah was in her final year of braces so we asked her orthodontist about taking Samuel as a patient. Sadly, he was planning his retirement & did not want to take any new ortho patients. He gave us a list of 2-3 local doctors he recommended. I got on Facebook & asked local friends for recommendations. I called a girlfriend whose husband is a dentist & asked for his recommendation as well. A few of the same names kept popping up, so I called those doctors for prices. We made our choice of doctors and called for an appointment. Fortunately, they offered free consultations & our with our dental insurance, we get a small discount off their bill.

Upon the first visit (late Spring 2010), the doctor said that it was too soon to consider starting Samuel in any appliances, braces, etc. He said to come back in 6 months & we'd reevaluate things. In the late Fall of 2010, it was pretty much the same story. We returned for a 3rd consultation in the Spring of 2011 to hear the same story again, only this time he felt confident that by the next visit it would indeed be time to get started. Each time, there was still a baby tooth growing in, or a wiggly one coming out or a tooth that wasn't even wiggly yet that we needed to wait on. We filled out a reminder post card last Spring and went home.

Fall 2011 came & went without a reminder post card coming in the mail. Without that post card, I completely forgot about it. Over the Christmas holidays, it struck me that we were probably due to go back in to see him, so I stopped by his office & made the appointment. Apparently the reminder post card got lost in the mail because the office said they sent it in September! Oops!

We went in on Friday afternoon. The orthodontist's office is very interesting in that it's set up in one big exam room with 4 patient chairs. There are no divisions or boundaries between the patient chairs, so you can see all 4 patients at one time from the parent bench on the facing wall. (So much for privacy, huh?) It doesn't really bother me since orthodontic work isn't exactly like getting an OB/Gyn exam...but it still takes some getting used to. Anyway, we went in Friday afternoon & the orthodontist did his exam and declared that "It is time!"

Sidenote: I can't EVER hear someone use the words "It is time" without hearing this voice in my head. (just watch the first 1:10 of the video to hear what I'm talking about) Clearly I watched a little too much of this movie when Savannah was 2 1/2 & demanded to watch it over & over, 2-3x a day for months.



Anyway, the orthodontist feels like Samuel's mouth has matured to the point that he is ready to get things started. At our next appointment, they will take impressions of his teeth & put on the top braces. A couple of months later, they will put on the bottom braces. He is hoping to be able to get him all fixed up without having to pull any teeth, but still says there is a slight possibility that we may have to. His mouth is extremely crowded, so we may not have an option. Crossing my fingers that we don't have to do that, though! My boy is a tad allergic to pain, like his Daddy. Sam is not exactly THRILLED about having to get braces because he knows they will hurt.... but he does want straight teeth & he's resigned to the fact that this is the only way to do it.

Fortunately, we can wait until we get our tax return & use that as a big down payment, so that will help the monthly payment be a little less. It will still be tough to pay for, but it's necessary.

The doctor hopes to have him in & out of braces within about 18-24 months. I like the idea of that, but I'll believe it when I see it. Savannah was in them for 4 years and I had ortho work of some kind for NINE years. Kind of makes 24 months sound like a weekend at the beach, doesn't it?

I'm anxious to get started on this! I think Samuel will be so cute with a little metal mouth.

Driver's Ed

Back in August, Savannah turned 15. In Texas, that's the magic age for getting your driver's permit, assuming you have taken driver's education class. Savannah had not yet taken it at the time of her birthday, so no permit for her (yet). We called the local driving school back in the summer and checked the price. (Gasp! $375!) We weren't really sure how we would pull that off because last time I checked, we have all of about $70 in our savings account. We put her off through the Fall. Honestly, football season & band practices make her week very full, so adding in 4 days a week for a driver's ed class just didn't seem feasible. Plus there was still that whole money thing. We told her we needed to wait until Spring. She understood & agreed that was best.

Well....the Spring semester of school has arrived. We called the driver's school back to recheck the price & see if it was still the same (it was), so we decided to check the online classes you can take instead. Fortunately, you can take the class online for less than half the price of the regular classroom version so we are going that route! We plan to get her signed up next week and will start the class ASAP after we pay the state their $20 fee for being an at-home student.

Here's the scary part. Savannah will take driver's ed now, then will have about 6 months until her 16th birthday. I believe the state now requires kids to have their instructional permit for 6 months before they can take their driver's license test, so this will work out just about right for her to get her license shortly after her birthday. She's already realizing how many big changes are coming for her in the coming year. A driver's license, getting a job (to pay for a car & contribute to our insurance bill!), her next-to-last year of high school, beginning to consider colleges and possibly dating somewhere in there. Lord, help me! This is happening too fast! I know it's all a rite of passage & part of growing up, but I'm not ready! (But then again, will I ever be?)

Slow down, baby girl. I'm not ready to let you go just yet. But when I do, the world better be ready for something big! They don't know it yet, but you are about to take the world by storm, charging Hell's gates with a water gun and a sweet giggle. I love you sweet thing!

I've been a bad blogger.

I've gotten into a lull lately & have not blogged much. Admittedly, I spend a lot of time on Facebook & less time focused on writing. I share about day to day stuff over on FB, so I have a hard time remembering to write things here too. Even if it's just a little "diary of what we did today" sort of entry, I want to write more often! I love to write, whether that is something serious, something funny, or just sharing about our life the way I used to here on the blog.

So here is your challenge as a reader of my blog.

What would you like to hear about? Do you have any questions for me? Any topics you're curious about my stance on? (please, no politics. I hate those discussions, we might not agree & honestly I'm an idiot where politics is concerned, so let's not go there!) What would you like to know about my loony family or myself? Anything you've been itching to get off your chest & yell at me about? (Just kidding about that last one. I'm a big wuss. Please be nice.)

Here's what I need you to do:

• If you clicked this link from Facebook, you can comment here or there. (Or inbox me on facebook.)
• If you are reading this post via email, PLEASE DON'T HIT REPLY & send it to the address that pops up. That will send an email to the gmail account that I never check! If you want to reply by email, send your email to Lizreeves2@aol.com.
• If you're here at the site, comment below!

I'd love to hear your questions & will do my best to answer them all! Ready, set, go!!!!

Random Thoughts with Liz

*Last Thursday, my first column came out in our local town newspaper. Just wanted to update you that no limos have picked me up for work yet. No security detail is following me to the grocery store & monitoring the cashier as she checks out my milk & yogurt. No autographs have been signed. Life's pretty much the same. I guess the fame & fortune will come a little later.

Ha ha! Seriously, I am proud of the work they've printed so far. I'm excited to have this opportunity to share my faith & my life. For however long this season lasts, I'm grateful. It's really cool to be able to share something with the community that I love to do anyway! For those of you who are local & reading it, THANK YOU!

*While I marked off the miles on the treadmill this morning before my workout buddy arrived, I looked out the windows and zoned out a little. God tapped me on the shoulder & brought to mind the memory of walking on this very treadmill a few short months ago. Alone in the workout room, I prayed for the full 30 minutes that I walked. I was BEGGING Him to intervene for us....PLEADING for a financial miracle....DYING for some kind of answer to our never-ending money struggles. I had no idea that he'd already flipped the switch for that light at the end of the tunnel. I had no idea that a matter of days later Larry would get a part-time job. That job, combined with a gift we received in early November, has finally got us moving in the right direction. We are FAR from being debt-free and living in great comfort. But for the first time since Spring 2009, we have a glimmer of hope. I've found myself planning ways to pay off debt and revisiting the Dave Ramsey book we were given last Spring. To even be able to reach this morning is HUGE. To even be able to CONSIDER the idea of using a little extra money now & then to pay "up" on a bill is thrilling. Sure, Larry is working 6-7 days a week and that sucks, but we know it's just for this season. And knowing that a season is short and WILL COME TO AN END makes it bearable. We'll get there, one day.

*As I was typing this, I've had THIS BLOG's playlist going in another window. I love it! (the blog AND the playlist) She has great taste in music!

*Today I posted this to facebook. It's been rolling around my mind for days. I was finally able to get it out on "paper". I have been trying to figure out how to best word it until today.

I appreciate honesty, transparency & people who don't hide behind masks or walls. Being real is more awesome to me than a stack of degrees, piles of money or any other outward sign that you've "got it all together". We are all really screwed up individuals & without God, none of us, or anything we try to do to look perfect, is worth a thing!

*Realizing that I will be getting drug out of bed in about 5 1/2 hours to drive Savannah to the High School for an academic UIL meet, I'm going to cut this short. Good night friends.

My ideal church

Through the years, Larry and I have tried to define who we are, as far as Christian denominations go, many times. We have never quite nailed it down because we haven't found any denomination that really fits us completely. We feel at home just about anywhere, really. Sure, there are places that feel a little more like home than others, but ultimately if they teach the virgin birth, death on the Cross, the resurrection & the 2nd coming, everything else is just fluff. And fluff can be pushed aside and/or ignored. Fluff we can deal with. Basic theological differences, we can't.

And since attending the Sheila Walsh conference today, I've been thinking about that on a different level. Hearing her talk about how God uses broken people, I was screaming "YES!" in my head. I've been thinking about it ever since. And I've come to a few conclusions about what the 'ideal' church looks like to me. (or at least something like this...)

The senior pastor is a recovering addict. He realized at 21 that he would be dead within the year if he didn't quit. He looked for help & got it. He started walking a sober life and failed. He fell back into old habits and realized how hard this clean life would be. And then someone told him about Jesus.

The associate pastor did time. He made some mistakes in his 20s, but after serving 4 years he got out & decided to turn his life around. Someone gave him a Bible while he was in prison and he read it cover to cover. He trusted God as his savior behind bars. Life on the outside would be hard. He'd have to start over and build new relationships, find a job and start a new life. This time, he would be doing it differently, though. This time, he wouldn't be alone.

The music pastor has a rebellious teenager who is giving he and his wife a lot of heartache. Despite raising her in church and having fed her Scripture all her life, despite all the summers in VBS and youth group meetings, she has never trusted Christ. He's terrified about what the future holds if she doesn't get her head on straight, but he's more fearful about her eternity if something doesn't change soon. After all, if she keeps hanging out with that crowd, she may not be alive in a year.

The youth pastor was a juvenile delinquent. At 16, he was locked up in "juvie". He still can't believe he and his friend robbed 2 stores before they got caught. Sure, he did his time & his record was sealed so that it doesn't haunt him now as an adult, the relationship with his parents has taken years to rebuild. It was so hard to regain their trust and he tries to get that across to the kids every week during youth group meetings. But with God's help, some of them are getting it.

The women's ministry coordinator had an abortion at 17. She thought he loved her, but when she told him she was pregnant, he gave her money for the abortion & disappeared. She really didn't want to do it, but she was too scared to tell her parents. She had a girlfriend drive her to the clinic & walk through the lines of protesters with her. She knew it was wrong, but she was terrified NOT to do it. It wasn't until she was 26 that she learned how deeply God loved her, even on that day. Ever since, her life has been changed and she desperately wants to reach other women for Him.

The children's director was a runaway who grew up in a single parent home. His dad left when he was in 4th grade. His mom always worked 2 jobs to pay the bills and he was home alone a lot. He knew he was just a burden on her, creating more bills, so he packed up his stuff one day when she was at work & hit the road. He lived on the streets for a little over a year before a preacher came to talk to the homeless kids he hung out with under the bridge. He didn't trust him at first, but eventually he learned that God had a plan for his life. It took another year before he went home to his mom. She met him in the yard, crying and cheering all at once, thrilled that he was home. She worried about him all that time he was gone. But when he sat her down on the couch that night & shared about what he'd learned about God, she realized that he wasn't alone all that time that he was gone, and that comforted her.

Why, you ask? Why would I love a church like this?

Because all of these people really know the love of God. These people have experienced grace and people aren't afraid to approach them. These people all recognized God's mercy and fell on their knees for forgiveness. These people all heard the call of God on their lives, educated themselves, fell in love with the Word of God and can teach it with authority and conviction based on personal experience. There are no masks or walls. They don't come with some set of rules about what is "ok" to discuss in church. These people are all 'real'.

I want to go to a church full of 'real' people.

Note: Please don't misunderstand. My current church is amazing, full of people who love God & mentor me all the time. None of the people I described here are leaders in my church (that I know of). I'm just thinking out loud.

Oh how I love Sheila Walsh.

Several months ago, author and Women of Faith speaker, Sheila Walsh, came to town for a 1 night, 3 hour long women's event. She lives just a few hours from here, so it's not a big stretch for her to make the trip to our little town to bless the lives of the women here. And I'm so glad she did!

On that hot night in July, she shared a little of her personal testimony that I had not previously heard at the many Women of Faith Conferences I have attended over the years. I knew she'd struggled with depression because she had shared that before, but she told "the rest of the story" that night. It was amazing and powerful and moving. She was totally humble & transparent for all of us strangers in sharing her personal & very private journey through life and what she'd learned about God through it all. At the end of the night, she hinted that she'd be coming back to share more at a later date. Sure enough, when the emcees took the stage to release us for the night, they spilled the beans that Sheila would be back in January!

Since that night, I've been looking forward to today!

This morning, I woke up way earlier than I typically do on a Saturday and made my way across town to one of the local churches where Sheila would speak. Girls (sorry, guys, if there are any male readers out there), let me tell you something. Sheila and I may not share a nationality. We may not share the same life story. We may be 19 years apart in age. But honey, Sheila & I share the same Savior! And ladies, that is all we need. I would love to spend a day, hanging out with Sheila, laughing and crying and praying. There is something about the way she talks that makes me feel like we've been next door neighbors for years, someone who I could pop by and see wearing my sweatpants and floppy, stained T-shirt without an ounce of judgement. (Well, ok, maybe not. After all, she is always dressed SO cute. I'd have to at least throw on some heels with my sweatpants before I dropped by to chat.)

Sheila's conference today (and new book by the same title) was "God Loves Broken People". As I listened to her talks, I heard a message that I've been shouting from the hilltops & trying to beat into the heads of my blog readers for several years now, but Sheila spoke it so much more eloquently than I ever have.

The heart of her message was that God loves to take all the broken, screwed up, messed up pieces of our lives and make them something beautiful.... that in the Church, it is us broken people that He uses most. That when an addict walks into the church building, they will feel out of place & like they don't belong & can't possibly be loved by God until another addict says hello & shares his/her story. When a woman who had an abortion walks into the church building, she will feel left out & like she can't be loved by God until another woman who had an abortion says hello & shares her story. When a person struggling with this sin or that sin walks in, it takes someone who has been there/done that/still battling that same issue to make that sinner feel welcome and loved. Just like when a person loses a child, no one really understands what they're going through but another parent who's lost a child. It's the same way in the Church. God uses our messed up lives to help other people, to demonstrate how vast & wide & amazing his love for us is. If we can't be transparent in the Church, then we're lost. The Church is a place for wounded people, not a museum for perfectly put together people to come & be put on display.

Sheila told a story about her native Scotland and how things work with sheep farmers. She said that sometimes, a mama sheep would reject one of her little lambs. The farmers have tried to figure out why that is, but there is no real explanation for it. If they leave the lamb in the pasture with the mother, she will kick it & won't feed it and ultimately, it dies of a broken heart. If the farmer goes into the field & attempts to feed it, it will not accept the food. The only way to help this little bummer lamb, as they are called, is for the farmer to bring it into his house, away from the mother, and nurse it to health. It sleeps by the fireplace to keep warm & cuddles against the farmer's chest to drink from a bottle. It becomes a member of the family, so to speak, living among the farmer's family for a while. Once it is big and strong enough to go back out to the pasture, the farmer returns it to the flock. But even years later, when the farmer comes out to call the sheep to him, the bummer lamb runs to greet him faster than all the other lambs because he/she knows the farmer's voice. The other lambs recognize that this farmer will feed them, but the bummer lamb understands the farmer's love and care on a different level. He really 'gets it'.

It's the same way with God. It takes a season of brokenness for us to really "get" God's love for us. It's when we are battling addiction, depression, struggling through grief & loss, recognizing the loss of a relationship or a dying marriage (or a million other things that break us) that we understand God the most. When we cry out & beg for His mercy, we draw nearer to Him than we do at any other time in our life. It is then that we, the bummer lamb, really "get" our shepherd. We learn to hear His voice above all the other noises & voices of life because we've sat in His lap & curled up against His chest and have felt His arms around us.

I'm telling you, girls.....Sheila is good. I'm so glad that God gave her a story to tell, a testimony of hurt and pain and brokenness all throughout her life. Because it's with those stories of heartache and pain that He gets so much glory. He is gracious, friends. And He is faithful!


On a lighter note, at one point in the day, Sheila stepped away from the stage & the emcees asked that we all write a question for Sheila on the 3x5 cards they had left in our chairs at the start of the day. I didn't really have a question, but was feeling a little silly. After years of Women of Faith conferences and now twice hearing Sheila talk in our town and consuming scores of her books, I've heard many stories about her sweet son, Christian, who is the same age as my Savannah. Today was no different. She shared a story about her son leading a gas station cashier to Christ. What a great kid! So on my card I wrote "I have an amazing 15 year old daughter. How do you feel about arranged marriages?" I included a big smiley face & "ha ha" at the bottom of the card so she would know I was just teasing and that I was not some crazy stalker fan who legitimately wanted to set up her daughter with Christian. (well, ya know....unless she was on board, then maybe you could classify me as such.) I figured that, with the hundreds of other women there today, my card would get tossed after the person who screened the questions got a laugh from it. But alas, when we came back from our break & they began the Q&A time with Sheila, do you want to guess which question they read first? Yep....mine! All the women sitting near me knew what I'd asked and we all burst out into giggles. Fortunately, the rest of the auditorium did too. Sadly, Sheila was on board with the arranged marriage, but said that Christian was already promised to another friend's awesome daughter. ha ha!!! If you change your mind, Sheila, we can meet halfway to introduce the kids.

Friends, seriously though, go out & get Sheila's new book. I promise it will be worth it. Here's the LINK to find it on amazon.

And Sheila, THANK YOU AGAIN FOR COMING TO TOWN! We love you here. Come back soon!

Friday Phone Dump....or not?

As I uploaded pictures to the computer tonight from my phone, I realized that I forgot to do the Friday Phone Dump post last Friday.

And no one noticed, I suppose. I didn't get any emails or comments asking where it was.

And then I realized that the pictures I was uploading would create my 21st weekly Friday Phone Dump post. When I began the FPD posts, I was hoping to have others play along & share their pictures every week. Maybe someone else is doing it regularly, but I have yet to ever have a comment on any of the FPD posts.

So I'm curious.........should I continue doing it? Comment & let me know what you think. Would you like to continue seeing pictures every Friday? Or should I give up the weekly photo sharing?