tonyandkirsten.org

Happy Anniversary!

I had a cavity filled at the dentist for the first time in a couple of years. I recently switched dentists in order to see one closer to my house, and I guess it takes them trying a certain dose of novacaine to find out how much each person needs. After one shot and some drilling, I could feel the drill — something I don’t think I ever remember feeling. I clenched up in pain, and they asked me if I could feel it. I nodded vigorously! The gave me a second shot of novacaine. At least I had the nitrous to keep me relaxed. It was just one “two surfaced” cavity in the back of my mouth, but it seemed to take a long time — probably because it was in the back of my mouth. It then took four hours for the novacaine to wear off. I go back for more, unfortunately, on October 11th. But hopefully that will be it for a while.

The only good part is the interesting experience of listening to ones’ favorite music while on the nitrous oxide — it is a rather trippy experience! If you’ve never brought your ipod/cd player/mp3 player along while getting dental work done, I highly recommend trying it for a slightly better experience.

We managed to help Madeline develop her first fear. Completely by accident of course. Here is the object of her terror:

Yes, a very cute-looking pig puppet. It all started last night when we went to Target to buy diapers. On the way in we browsed at the “1 Spot,” that small area near the front of the store where everything is a dollar. They had animal bath puppets, as well as some other stuffed animals and many other items. I grabbed the Pig bath puppet, thinking Madeline might enjoy it in her bath, while Tony grabbed a small stuffed animal.

We went through the store just fine, and Madeline sat in the cart and played with both items. As we were getting ready to check out, Tony decided some fun was in order. He put the puppet on his hand and had it “eat” the other small stuffed animal. Madeline let out a scared noise and started to shake in fear. She wouldn’t even look at the puppet!

Since she had already chewed on it while we were shopping, we didn’t think it would be right to put the puppet back. I thought that maybe we could re-introduce it to her this morning in a more friendly way, and that she would be fine with it.

She didn’t want anything to do with it this morning either. Despite us demonstrating that it is “friendly” and that it is so harmless you can stomp on it and throw it around, she was still backing away from it and saying “no” very clearly. We set it down next to her face-up, and she would turn it right over, saying “no” at the same time.

I guess we’ll put it away for a few weeks or months and see if she still remembers. And now if she wakes up appearing to have had a nightmare, at least we have some idea what her fears are about. As traumatic as it seemed to be for her, it was honestly pretty hard not to laugh at her strong reaction to the harmless, cute pig!

If you live in Ames, you might have noticed there was a rather large rain storm in the middle of the day today. Not long after it started, I heard a water-sounding noise that was unfamiliar. I wandered around the house, looking out the windows…was it just the gutters overflowing? Was a window open somewhere?

After a little bit, I went down stairs. It seemed to be coming from the direction of Holly’s room, so I went in, knowing that Holly was at class. I was shocked to see water cascading down from window sill of the egress window in her room! I first panicked and threw blankets on the window sill to catch the water from hitting the floor. I then realized Holly would probably want me to take the numerous books, DVDs and VHS tapes out of the window sill to save them from getting any wetter than they already were.

After throwing all of her stuff on the bed, the water was cascading down even faster, and I could see nearly a foot of standing water in the large egress-enabled window well! The water was gushing in between the panes of the window. I quickly ran around the house to grab towels, and threw them all in the window sill, but not before a lot of water had gotten into the carpet. I kept thinking to myself, “Of all the weeks for Nate Swinton to be in Louisiana, it had to be this one when I could really use him and his powerful carpet cleaning machines!”

The water didn’t really stop coming in until it had all drained out of the window well and into the room, but at least some of it was contained by the dozen or so sopping wet towels. When Tony got home a couple hours later, we moved a lot of furniture out of Holly’s room and used a small Bissell carpet cleaning machine (Thanks for the donation of that a while back, Russ!) to suck up 4 tank-fulls of water — maybe 15 or 20 gallons? It seemed to take a long time.

The insurance adjuster will hopefully come out tomorrow to help us figure out if we have any longer-lasting damage from our little flood. We’re not sure if there is anything wrong with the basement drywall or the window itself or if there might still be gross stuff (you know, the “M” word) starting to grow under the carpet or behind the walls. We do know that there are some definite drainage issues in the back yard that we need to get fixed before the snow flies this winter!

So, we got this today:

It’s a ‘94 Volvo station wagon with 140,000 miles. Yes, we are getting rid of the neon for an older vehicle with more miles…but it’s a Volvo! And it’s a wagon! And it has cool features like a moon roof, CD changer, cruise control, and leather seat…all features I have never before had in a vehicle!

After realizing we averaged $140/month in repairs over the last 12 months on the neon, we decided it was time to get something else. And if we were going to bother to get something esle, we decided we needed something a little bigger. This is a great deal that we stumbled across…turns out the previous two owners were also Stonebrook members…so, we’re keeping it in the family.

Anybody want to buy this?

We’re replacing the spedometer, so it actually will work…making it not quite as bad a deal as it might be otherwise. As much as I have loved the LaUrple Neon, I think it was time for it to go…

So, the other night, I was feeling really frustrated because I felt like my zeal and passion this fall was going for naught. After raging for a bit, and then realizing how much I was not filled with the peace of Christ, I decided to go for a prayer walk.

While walking, I prayed for all the things I was frustrated and anxious about. As I talked to God about these things, I did get a peace that He would take care of them, and I then decided it was time to re-kindle the fire that God has inside of me. So, I picked up a tasty beverage and the movie “Braveheart”.

As I watched, I found a particular dialog interesting. It happens when Robert the Bruce (the 17th) is talking to his father for the first time about William Wallace.

Father: Uncompromising men are easy to admire. He has courage, so does a dog. It is exactly our ability to compromise the makes us noble.

That is an interesting definition of nobility, indeed.