Love-Hate: the Orthodontist

Normal people with braces have appointments every 6-8 weeks.  I have them every 3-4.  I've had my braces on for 2 1/2 years...and have up to a year to go.  Yippie.  Anyway, I had an appointment today and decided to tell a little about the goings-on in my mouth.  Once upon a time, the dentist told me I'd never have to have braces.  You now see how far that hope got me.  After having my braces for about a year and a half, I had to have oral surgery.  They went fishing for one of my canines that was stuck way up in my gums and sideways.  They opened me up (thank goodness I was asleep; when I got teeth pulled they only gave me laughing gas), glued a little bracket to the tooth, attached a gold chain (yes, legit bling), sewed me up so that only the chain was coming of my gums, attached the chain to my braces, and over the next year cranked the chain until the tooth came down into its spot.  Mind you they then had to rotate the tooth (maybe the worst part), close the space they opened to let the tooth in, and tuck the root.  It took a year to get here (worse than a baby) and caused me the most physical pain of my whole life.  I will be more thankful for my left canine than probably anyone else in the world.  I also have a molar that decided never to exist, so when the baby tooth fell out, there was nothing there.  There is still nothing there.  They will soon be driving a stake into my gum to move all my molars and my wisdom tooth over one spot.  At least then I'll be able to chew again-- and someday, somehow I will have a beautiful smile.  That's the love part of the relationship :)

Hill Cumorah Pageant #2!

Our family recently got accepted to be part of the Hill Cumorah Pageant for the second year in a row!  We're super excited.  It's the 75th anniversary of the pageant, so it might be a big to-do!  Last year we had fun and met lots of wonderful people and we're still quoting lines from the show :)  Anyone that hasn't ever seen it definitely should come see us!  

Finals!

3 finals down and only 3 more to go!  So far all have gone very well and grades have been quite pleasing :) But my next three are probably the hardest, so there will be lots of studying in the next 2 days!  Writing this post is my break from studying AP World History; I'm trying to cram the highlights of like 6,000 years of history into my already overloaded brain.  Anyway, it's Honors Algebra II that I'm the most unexcited/worried/unprepared for, but it's not till Thursday, which is an eternity away...

No Break, No Snow, Yes Tanner!

The majority of the students at Zionsville High School are pretty distraught about the fact that our Christmas Break starts 3 days before Christmas...we have school through the 22nd.  In the words of my friend: "When am I supposed to get ready for Christmas?  When am I supposed to get my presents bought and ready?? Christmas Eve, that's when!"  I'll admit, it can't quite feel like the holiday season till I'm done taking final exams, so I'll savor the little bit I have.  It also cannot feel like Christmastime at all until we have snow...which we usually do by this time of year :(  So a week until Christmas, and it doesn't feel especially like this special time of year.  But they say Christmas happens in your heart, so I'm working on it.
Latest excitement in our house: Tanner came in last night!  We had to hold Grant back in the airport so he didn't go past the "Do Not Enter" sign to meet him.  It was so sweet to see the excitement we all had to have Tanner home; he has certainly been missed!  (Neil and Grant think that just because I don't express it the same way as they do that I didn't miss him.)  So we were all up till one in the morning eating and laughing hysterically.
6 days and 6 finals to make it through till my favorite day of the year!
Olivia

"O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever."
Alma 37:46

"The measure of intellegence is the ability to change."
Albert Einstein

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

To me, Christmas means picking out a real tree at the Christmas tree farm and bringing it home to smell for a month.  It means that one blanket we have with the snowmen and the candy canes, the cute wooden Santa that sits on the piano, the Christmas dishes, and the wooden nativity where Christ fits perfectly in the manger.  It means reading the familiar story whose words have more meaning with each passing year.  It means carols- sung at church, in the living room, or on the neighbors' doorstep.  It means lights on houses and the magical way the tree looks lit up at night when the house is dark and still.  It means the indescribable joy of a 2 hour delay, or better yet- a snow day.  It means Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas album and the only time of the year I listen to the radio.  It means the physical anxiety lying in bed on Christmas Eve.  It means that feeling in the air when it seems the world is a little brighter and the human race a little happier.  It means being with friends, but more than anything, with my family, together.  To me, Christmas is love.