Shark Tooth (Hoo Ha Ha).

This post was partly written and originally posted on January 17, 2012.  Updates have been added to this post.

Sometimes you get a phone call from the school saying your daughter has fallen (but was able to get up), and they believe she's okay, but she has a fat lip and some blood.  Everything seems fine, regardless, she didn't break a tooth or anything.

Sometimes you talk to your daughter and your daughter agrees that, yes it hurt, but she's fine and wants to stay at school.

So you hang up and don't think much about it until you get home.

What turns out to be "she's fine, she didn't break a tooth or anything" actually appears to be quite the opposite and you're not entirely sure how the school staff missed the fact that your daughter's tooth is now shaped like a shark tooth.

You call the dentist.

30 minutes and $50 later...

Getting rid of the shark tooth... PRICELESS.

Cali has an overbite and the orthodontist mentioned, at a check up while we wait for her to get older before beginning work, that Cali needed to be careful because kids with overbites of this degree tend to break their front teeth at least once when they fall.

Oh good, she's done it three times now.  We tend to be over-achievers at our house.

I just need to make this kid wear a helmet until she turns 12 and we can begin her orthodontist work.

On the plus side, the dentist only charges to fix a broken tooth one time within a year's span.  If it breaks again, there's no charge.  I'm sure this is to cover any work that doesn't stick on their end, but I'm not complaining in any way.

Need a good dentist referral?  Go here.

Tell them Cali sent you.

(No, I didn't receive compensation for this post.  I just really appreciate a good dentist.)

Burnt Pork Chops For Dinner. Nightly Recap.

The fact that my house smells like burnt pork chops is a clear indication that I've lost all motivation.

Well, burnt dinner might not actually be an indication for that, it's more of an indication that I was sucked into the Duck Dynasty episode that the girls were watching (that show is so stupid and yet I couldn't walk away...) and forgot about dinner until I smelt it...

But for real.

Today burnt me out.

Tayler has had a tooth ache for three days.  She woke up this morning with swollen cheek.  She has also developed the signs of another UTI.

Today I made it to work long enough to help my boss's wife pull of a surprise party for my boss's 50th birthday.  And by help her pull off I mean telling her when she could come and making sure everyone in the office knew about it.  My boss showed up a half hour before he was supposed to after a meeting and from there I was giving him one lame excuse over another until finally he tells me, "I don't believe anything you're saying."

From there my co-workers started making up urgent issues that needed his attention while his wife finished setting up in the back of our office and then in a grand finale a lawyer tells him one of our investigators is in a huge fight with one of the federal lawyers and they're both quitting the case and he needs to come intervene.  We rush down the hall to where everyone else is and "surprise!"  there's no fight after all.  Have some cake.

From there I left and took Tay to the dentist who was baffled at her mysterious toothache.  As far as he could tell everything looked perfectly fine and perhaps it was just the fact that her permanent molars were pressing on the baby molars and things were getting ready to fall out and grow in and something may be hitting a bit of a nerve somewhere, but that theory wouldn't lead to swelling...?  He didn't know.

So we left with some confusion and headed to the doctor where it was confirmed that she did indeed have another UTI (I had no doubt, at this point in the game we know what's going on when it comes to that) but then looked at her cheek as well.  Turns out it had nothing to do with her teeth, so the dentist was right in his theory of why they might be aching, but in addition to that Tayler has a blocked gland in her cheek.

He prescribed sucking on sour candy to get the glands working and hopefully getting rid of the blockage.

I've never even thought half the things these kids come up with were even possible.

But there it stands.

Several trips to the store later, a few hours of boutique emails, and a few rounds with the pharmacy, and you have one tired momma.  And burnt pork chops for dinner.

A Family With Two Last Names. And The Dentist That Can't Figure It Out.

Being a "combined" family has it's unique challenges.  One of the big ones for us, and probably all combined families, is that our children don't all have the same last name.  And what further makes that interesting is that my last name doesn't match my biological children.  Which is really neither here nor there, we're a family and that's all that matters.

But in certain instances it gets... interesting.

The lunch lady at the elementary school finally has it down.  Or rather, I should say, the new lunch lady has it down.  The old one?  I'm pretty sure she was just stealing the lunch money, but in the name of the benefit of the doubt, we'll just say she obviously didn't know which kids belonged in our family.  Even when I listed them all out individually with the amounts that should be applied to their names.  Even when I sent each child with a separate check...

*Ahem*

So the new lunch lady at school gets it.  She knows that our two last names are connected into one family and that they all belong to me with one phone call.  "Hey lady, your kids need money."

Cool, I'll take care of that.  And with one phone call I know that one check can be sent in, with a note breaking it down, and all the kids will be taken care of on her end the way they need to be.

Our pediatrician struggled for a minute with it, but it was his own fault.  When we moved in with West we moved far enough away from our old home to warrant finding closer doctors and dentists.  We adopted the pediatrician that West was already using for his kids and all found a new dentist.

One day I took one of my girls into the pediatrician (I'm pretty sure it was Tayler, *sigh*, UTI's) and he looked at my last name and asked if I was linked to Jayme and Sean?

"Yes, I'm their step-mom."

"So their dad is..." and he points at Tayler and generally indicates my girls as a whole.

"Her step-dad."

The puzzled look clearly explained that he hadn't followed, "You're their step-mom?"

"Yes."

"And he's the step-dad?"

"Yes."

"Well who's the biological parent then?"

I burst out laughing.  "I'm Jayme and Sean's step-mom but I'm Tayler's biological mom."

The light bulb went on in his head, realizing that while he'd been trying to figure out the biological and step connections, the way he'd phrased his questions always led for the answer to imply a step-parent.  Had he stuck to one set of kids for his questioning he would have had an easier time finding his clarity.

At our dentist they have the kids set up under two different accounts, one for each last name.  Every six months, without fail, we get two reminder postcards.  And then two phone calls to my cell phone.

"Hi, may I speak with West?"

Already knowing it's the dentist for the kids, and already knowing that it's going to be about setting up appointments I say, "This is his wife."

And she proceeds, "I'm calling to set up an appointment for Jayme and Sean."

This situation has happened twice before so I already know how this is going to play out.  They're going to want to make appointments for Jayme and Sean, I'm going to bring up the other four girls, who having a different last name are on a different account, they'll set the appointment up for all six and then... call me back minutes later for the girls again.

"Okay, but we also have the four other girls so I need to make appointment times for all six of them to come in together."

"Okay, what's their name?"

I tell her and even spell it.  She hesitates.

"Well they're not on my list right now but we can make those appointments."

"They should be on your list.  We've always brought them in on the same day and we received both postcard reminders for them."

"Well it doesn't matter we can set up the appointment for all six kids."

And we proceed to find a day and time that will accommodate for all six kids.  I spell names, she finds them and plugs them in.   We hang up.

Three minutes later she calls back.

"May I speak with Stephanie?"

I don't even wait for her to say why she's calling, "I seriously just talked to you and made these appointments."

This has happened three times now.

Do they not realize when they see those names on their list that they just spent all that time, mere seconds earlier, setting up appointments for them?

Did I not say they were going to be on the list?

Do you need more caffeine?

I understand that we have two last names in our family.  I understand that my last name does not match my children's.  I understand that even if our family has been coming to you for a couple of years now, that your support staff changes and they don't know us.  I completely understand and even expect to have to explain that we have two accounts.

But if I tell them our two names are on the list, and if we spend five minutes setting up appointments, and if our second account shows up next on that list, don't you think you would notice that?