Front teeth

Zachary had to have two teeth pulled on Thursday. His bottom middle baby teeth were still firmly attached to their roots, but the adult teeth were already through the gums and were pushing on those babies and causing him some trouble. Poor guy! One of the roots was about 3 times as long as the actual tooth. It was a bit painful.





He rebounded pretty quickly and was thrilled to find eight $1 dollar bills next to his pillow the next morning. We explained that the tooth fairy must bring extra bucks for teeth that had to be pulled and even more for teeth that still had the roots attached! If you look closely in the little red "treasure chest" you'll see the teeth. One of them looks like a vampire fang and that sharp pointy part was the root that was way... WAY down in his gums. UCK.




He's healing up nicely. The holes in his gums look much less gross today!

Father's Day

My two boys are incredibly blessed. They have a truly wonderful daddy.

Mike is so much more patient than I am. And he's the dad who comes home from work ready to play. Lightsabers? Sure. Legos? You got it. Cars? Definitely. All those things that I don't particularly love to do... Mike takes care of in the playing department. He's fun and funny and very loving. He also sings with them, prays with them, reads to them. He wipes noses and bottoms and all the other things that men don't enjoy doing. He sacrifices so much for our family and for that, I am truly thankful.

He is a wonderful example of what a godly father should be! Happy Father's Day to my hubby and to all the daddies today.

FINANCES!

Finances.

Today is an historic day in the Bishop household. After eleven years of slowly -- but efficiently -- building up WAY too much debt (and I do mean way too much), we have finally paid down all debt with the exception of our car note. It is an amazing feeling. But it is also quite humbling because I am at a point in my life where I just want to do the right thing with our money. I don't want to make any more stupid, careless, selfish money decisions. I want to save and invest and be frugal. But in all honesty, those words and concepts aren't particularly ingrained in either me or Mike. It is truly a change of lifestyle to cut up the cards and to consult the checkbook before every purchase. We're going back to the old cash-in-the-envelope style of budgeting that we did when we were first married. I don't know exactly when or why we left that budgeting style behind... because it was effective for us. But at some point we must have decided that we didn't need to do it anymore, for whatever reason. But we're going back to that and we're going to work on putting some money into those college funds for the boys and into retirement accounts. I think I'm starting to feel grown-up. Or maybe I'm just starting to feel old?



Anyone have some great budgeting tips or money saving ideas to share? Any great ideas to make the summer fun on small amounts of cash?

Field Trip (shmield trip)

So yesterday was the first grade field trip to the zoo. It was about 50 degrees and rainy and windy. In Oklahoma we'd say 50 degrees with a wind chill of about 35. It was cold and pretty nasty. All of that was, in itself, a slight nuisance. But add to that a group of first graders who are also cold and wet and who all want to go to see different animals in a different order and you will find yourself with a mom who is EXTREMELY grateful to teach adults instead of 7 year old darlings!

However, I must say that I was extremely proud of my Zach. He was a little trooper. Never complained, not even once. And he was so patient with our group of kiddos. We had a couple that were on the excessively whiny side. (I'm hungry...at 9:45 in the morning. I'm getting wet... in the pouring down rain this was apparently something unexpected. I'm tired... after 15 minutes of walking. I'm hungry... at 9:47 in the morning. I'm cold... but I don't want to put my hood on my head because I like to get my hair wet in the rain. I'm HUNGRY... at 9:49 in the morning.) Zachary was so sweet and such a trooper. I was very proud of him.

And the field trip wasn't a total disaster. It was over at 1:30 and I got to go home after that! (I am exaggerating of course.) The kids in my group did have their cute moments. I just have this thing about whining. It is my biggest pet peeve. My kids hear this daily in our house, "No whining! We do not whine!" And now that I've seen some truly terrific whiners at work I realize that my own children will never be the superstars of whining, something that makes me truly grateful!

Fabulous! My "Terrific Kid"

My boy Zachary was honored at his elementary school today. He was one of two children from his class of 23 who were chosen as the Kiwanis "Terrific Kids" for the year. The criteria for this award are "a positive attitude, good character, and responsible citizenship." I'm completely proud of him! He, of course, has taken his newfound celebrity in stride. He seemed unimpressed when his name was called and just sauntered forward to receive the award. No big grins or celebratory high fives. Unaffected, unlike me. I got all teary eyed when his name was called at the awards assembly, not because he had won the award, but because of the cacophony of cheers coming from all of the other first graders! He's truly loved and admired by his peers and that is a special thing for a mother to see.
What a blessing.