Good news...finally

So I went to see another orthodontist yesterday and I left with some great news. He doesn't want me to have the surgery (yes!) b/c it's super invasive and he doesn't think it's necessary. Which I do find odd seeing as though the other orthodontist said there was no other option and my oral surgeon told me I would be making a bad decision by not having the surgery. But the new doc has become kind of a family friend these last two years b/c his oldest daughter is a student at choate and we're pretty close, and his youngest two girls go to the school brian teaches at. they are a great family so i'm really putting all of my trust into him to help me make the correct decisions! He showed me an xray of a man with a worse open bite than mine, he said his mouth is perfect now. Granted, he had two years of braces and other treatments but hey, no one had to take his face apart then put it back together again. So thats where we are now...i'm in the process of getting my records transferred which always makes me feel bad. I saw how hard the other docs worked on my case and i almost feel like i'm betraying them but I'll get over it! Hopefully I'll get the braces in a month or so and then he wants me to see a speech therapist b/c he thinks i'm "using my tongue the wrong way" when i'm talking and swallowing forcing my mouth open. complicated stuff. but it's ok, b/c i'm not having surgery!!!!! =) on the down side, my request to look like heidi klum after surgery will no longer be upheld :(

Great Weekend

Brian and I had a great weekend - full of family and friends...just the way we like 'em =) Friday night we hung out with some friends while they were on dorm duty, it was nice to just hang out and relax. I worked for just a few hours on saturday and Brian took his strength and conditioning exam (fingers crossed!). The Catlin fam came over for dinner in the Dining Hall and a movie. The adults watched Fracture, and the kids watched Finding Nemo which I can only assume isn't the first time they've seen that movie. Fracture wasn't too bad, not as "thrilling" as I hoped but still pretty good. When it was time for the fam to pack it up, Ryan didn't want to leave so we had a slumber party! Champ was very protective of Ryan, he heard a noise and started barking liking crazy then slept on the floor next to the futon Ry was sleeping on. Really cute. The next morning Brian and Ryan took Champ for "the longest walk ever" according to Ry, and I went to help get brunch ready at a friends house. We did a potluck style brunch with some of our friends on campus, it was lots of fun. Pretty cool to be in the kitchen with friends...lots of laughs and smiles. The boys and I then packed up and headed over to the rink where we help disabled children skate on Sundays. It was really cool to see Ryan helping those less fortunate than him. He was very inquisitive and super sensitive. At the end Ry even got to put on some skates and Brian helped him around the rink a couple of times. After Amy and Kenny came to get him, Brian and I rushed up to hartford to join his parents at a boat show. It was neat to step foot on some of the fancy ones and think about how we'll NEVER own of those! Sarah joined us all for dinner at the Olive Garden to top off our fam and friends weekend =) We were exhausted and sleeping by 945...yikes! Totally worth it though!

Human kindness

I just had to share something I witnessed yesterday. I was driving by a POW monument and passed a guy at a stop sign...when he reached the monument he did the sign of the cross...i just thought that was so cool. With all of the craziness in this world, it makes you forget that there are good people living among us!

Summer vacation!

After these last couple of crappy weeks at work, I'm REALLY looking forward to our summer vacation! We just booked a week in St. Martin through our timeshare for the middle of August...that's definitely enough to get me through the dragging winter months. I know I don't have much to complain about, I get a lot of time off with my job, more than a lot of people...but that doesn't mean that my job is all roses all the time. People working at prep schools have bad days too! This week was much better than last week though, thank God. It was one thing after another last week, girls falls from rock wall and breaks her pelvis in two places, that night I was covering a hockey game and one kid got a concussion, and another broke his collarbone...that was just Monday! I won't go through the whole week for fear of boring you completely, but that should give you a good idea. This week went by fast and was going really well until I got the news yesterday. My insurance is definitely NOT paying for my jaw surgery. I really don't know what to do, everyone is telling me to get a second opinion but two doctors have now told me I need surgery, getting another opinion isn't going to get Connecticare to pay for it. They told me I could appeal it but it won't work b/c they've tried before. I'm nervous my doctor didn't stress to them the importance of this procedure. I think I'll call the insurance company myself, not sure how much good it's going to do but it will make me feel better to vent to them!

Ok, I'm done feeling sorry for myself. Sorry I haven't put any pictures up recently. My camera is constantly out of batteries so I haven't been able to upload any. I know reading blogs is much more fun when there are pics to look at! Anyhow, I'm covering a 630AM practice at the moment so I should probably go make sure everything is alright. Have a great weekend!

HAPPY BELATED HOLIDAYS!

I suppose it's time for another entry! Brian and I had a crazy but really great two weeks off from work. We looked at a calendar and realized that starting the night of Dec. 14th, we had either a family committment or get together with friends, every day/night except for two! It was fun, but only having two real days of doing absolutely nothing was a huge tease. We can't complain though, we got to see a lot of people in a short time, which was great b/c our schedules don't always match up with those outside the prep school world during the school year so it was great to catch up. We had an amazing Christmas, our families were unbelievable to us. There were great gifts all around! Brian got me a mountain bike which I am really pumped about. He totally surprised me, it was great! The only bummer is now I have to wait a couple months for warm weather to use it! It's going to come in handy when I don't feel like walking to work and I really need to stop driving the block and a half here everyday, pathetic. I'm really not that lazy, just never on time!! Anyhow, some other vacation highlights include, going to NYC with 15 of my cousins, seeing out of state family, celebrating dads bday, and gramma b's bday, hosting my grandparents for dinner and getting hooked on the gameshow DUEL, hanging with my sister and her beau, game night with old friends, new years eve with the fam, and new years day in NY with brian's friends for a fun filled day of football! We were sooo tired, it was almost a relief to go back to work =) NYC with my cousins was such a great time...i'll post some pics soon. We took the train down early one morning which was entertaining in itself, then went to times square, ripley's believe it or not (pretty neat), lunch at Mangia e Bevi, (a lot more quiet on a sunday afternoon but we did get to dance on chairs and play tambourines, and the sangria was the best i've ever had!), saw the tree, toys r us, hershey store, macys, herald square, etc. it was great but we were all pretty beat by the end of the day, not to mention it started pouring at the end of the day. perfect timing though. i'm sure there is so much i'm missing about our break but i think you get the idea: lots of fam, lots of friends, not much down time! I'm pretty sure i'm repeating myself so i'll stop here...hope everyone had a great holiday, happy new year!