Do you know what happens when I forget to take my camera with me on vacation?

It’s a surefire trick to having the best vacay ever. No way to prove it besides a sweet picture of my hands that my sister took on my phone that I can’t post. For reasons.

It also means that I scour the internet finding cool pictures to add and make a few drawings. Hold tight. It’s going to be EPIC (epic vacay. yes folks, I’m fourteen)

(i’m writing this now instead of waiting to get the pictures. why? because my baby shower was two months ago and i’ve yet to get the pictures from it so i’ve yet to blog about it and that shower was explosive and needs to be blogged about. but i haven’t. no pictures)

So here’s how it went down. My teeth HURT. Badly. I like sugar. I don’t floss. Well, I didn’t floss. I do now. I’ve had a massive drill induced change of heart. I had MANY cavities.Plus, I wanted to get my grill all blinged out.

My sister has been bugging me for FOREVER to see Abby. She loves her the most, I’m pretty sure. She finally called and said that if I didn’t come down there SOON she would be coming here SOON. Even with the threat of having to get all of my dentistry done, I’d still take that over having to clean my house. So off I went.

Maybe I need subheadings.
Back to the dentistry. My brother in law is a dentist. I’ve never had anyone I knew do my dentistry because I didn’t think there would be any way I could look them in the eye after such a thing. So much screaming. Like any warm blooded American, I hated even the thought of going to the dentist. So I hadn’t.

I could make you a huge long list of things I’d rather do. BUT I knew if I had paid for a flight to go down there, I couldn’t back out (I had called and canceled 3/4 of my dentist appointments up here). The last dude that did my fillings had a lazy eye. It was very unnerving.

Got in on Wednesday night and bright and early Thursday morning I sat down for a marathon day of dentistry. Surprisingly it was not bad. Not even a little.

it was a
gentle dental
experience.

So it turn out that my brother in law is really good at what he does. I’m not just saying that. I wouldn’t. Especially about a dentist. He’s superfantastic. It restored my faith in the whole profession. If you live anywhere near Surprise, Arizona, I highly recommend him. In fact, there’s a good chance I might fly out there every six months for my check ups. The other cool part about it? He lets you drive his Lexus around after.

Jeff is one of the most generous people I know. He knew that right now with all of our bills for Abby and Casey that another would be tough. He did all of my work for free. To top it off, he did the work he couldn’t do the first day on his day off- even paying his hygienist time and a half to come in and help. See what kind of guy he is? Don’t you want that dude to be your dentist?

Melanie

This is my sister Melanie. I like her. A lot. I’d like to be more like her as well.

My aunt told my mom that her girls ‘exude light’ everywhere they go. She’s sort of right. Melanie does. I just like to stand really close to her so you think it’s coming out of me as well.

Melanie is the kind of person I wish I was more like. She’s an extrovert. She’s bubbly. She’s quick witted. She’s like an amazingly spiritual Liz Lemon.

You know how I just said that Jeff is one of the most generous people I know? (you should, it was like five sentences ago) well, Melanie is the other. When I got there she was waiting with gifts for Abby (the cutest clothes ever), she took me to get all girled out- next time you see me I’ll look less like a frump. I got fake nails and a sweet pedicure. I like being a girl sometimes.

Anyways, I love going to Melanie’s because being around her makes me want to be a better mom. I think I need to go to her house quarterly (or just move there) so I can reevaluate my mothering skills, steal some recipes and play with her five cute kids. Her house really is a place where the spirit resides. They don’t have the TV on all of the time. They play games and do puzzles with each other. Ramble ramble ramble. I really do have a point.

Life Defining Moment:

YOu know the kind of moment you know changes you to your DNA? The kind that solidifies all of the hard work and crap you’ve been through? I had one while we were there. I talk a big game. Especially on facebook. FINALLY I got a chance to prove myself. To make good on all of the talk. And I did.

It went down like this: Shawn and his oobercute wife Summer (who has her place in CK-1 sealed just by putting up with her husband) came over to Melanie’s for games. I decided to have love and kindness in my heart towards him because he really can’t help the way he is. So when he came up to say hello, I gently put out my hand and began to say, “it’s so good to finally meet you, dear friend” and out of NOWHERE the goober went to punch me in the skull. From there, all I saw was white hot rage, I lost time and came to on the floor of Melanie’s family room grabbing at Haught as he was screaming like a girl and running away. Melanie later told me that I tackled him down onto the couch, we fell on the floor and I pinned him down and punched him over and over in his ribs. I have to believe Melanie, even though I’m more of a kidney puncher.

I’d feel super duper awesome about the whole event if Shawn wasn’t such a freaking GIRL.