What Have I Been Up To?

Well, I will tell you. I have been to Morocco to clean some teeth. I had the great opportunity to hook up with a group my brother Eric is in charge of called 'Share a Smile.' They have been several places providing dental care in the past. China, Russia, Belarus, Bolivia. This year they went to Zagora Morocco. They also took, for the first time this year, a crew of medical professionals. An opthamologist was doing cataract surgeries, a dermatologist seeing all kinds of intense stuff, and my super sister Shauna did cardiac care. It was truly an amazing experience. I hope to be able to go again sometime. And hope to convince Troy the neurologist to join me.

I knew it would be hard at times seeing the poverty, having to tell people no (for every patient we saw there were several who didn't have the papers to enter and were turned away), etc. But I wasn't prepared for how emotionally overwhelming it was, especially on that first day. I was in charge of triage for the second half of the first day and so it was up to me to decide who gets seen and who gets sent home. There was a cute little 6 year old boy with a completely rotted out mouth. Only one molar was even in tact in his entire mouth! It was everything rotten to the gums. He also had the complication of a swollen lymph node that could be seen visually without even touching him. I am not sure if he had other issues causing the swelling, but I suspected it was the infection in his mouth causing the problem. Yet, what was there to do? Not a single tooth seemed worth saving and yet to extract his 'teeth' would have also been a dis-service. How would he be able to chew then? We don't make dentures for 6 year olds. They would just grow out of them. I had to send him away. It felt awful. By the end of that day I was in tears. However by the end of our trip when you could see the looks on the faces of people in town waving good-bye to our bus and throwing us kisses. It felt pretty darn good. We weren't just tourists or possibly spies. We were the good guys.

One of the peace corps volunteers (Mike-from Texas) we had working with us told me a pretty cool story. He said that after being here for nearly 2 years he still hasn't always felt welcomed by his neighbors (he told me it wasn't uncommon for them to think all Americans are spies). Then the night after our first working day there, his next door neighbor, who's child had been seen in our clinic that day, invited him into his home and shared his dinner with Mike. Mike said at the end of the week that it had been one of his best and most productive weeks of his entire stay in Zagora. That really made me feel good!

It was also really great to spend time with my Brother Eric and his wife Jolynne, and with 2 of my sisters who also went. Shauna and Paula. Special thanks to my mother in law for taking care of the kids and to my father in law for coming along to help out and who fixed things around the house all week. The dryer now works great! I really had a great time, but was so glad to come home to my blessed life and the family that I love. I am so lucky!!!!

Elevator talk

So today was interesting. I went to the hospital to work out a prescription error that happened and while I was in the elevator a friendly man looked at my two lovely daughters and said to me "you are SO lucky" I said "yes I am" He then went on to say how he would give anything to have young cute kids again. He wished he could go back in time and do it over, etc. Then another woman in the elevator said "you couldn't pay me to go back! I am so glad it's over" My first thought, was- that's a mother's perspective for you. Someone who remembers all the hard work, this Dad was probably just the come home from work and play with the kids type. Then we went on to discuss the number of kids I had and just as I was about to get off the truth came out that I have 3 older sons in school. There were 2 college aged young men in the elevator with us, and they seemed a bit shocked. It's funny, I can remember when I used to think that telling people I had 5 kids someday would be a bit embarrassing. Now I feel like it's somewhat of a badge of courage for everyone to admire. Shows how I have matured I guess. (Or maybe I am now just cocky). So I found myself being somewhat like my Father (who used to embarrass the heck out of me) saying to them all as I left something like "I leave to all to ponder and respect me as I get out on floor number 2 here" (What the?)

Then as I walked to my van, thinking about my kids and the value of having a family, a somber thought came to me. I remembered how the schools went on lock down Monday because of some man who flipped out and killed his family and was missing. He later drove into a cement barrier on the freeway killing himself as well. I was shocked to find out later that he and his wife had adopted 4 Chinese children. How does someone go from being the kind of person who adopts children from China to someone who embezzles money from his work to support his drug habit then gets caught and sees no other way out except to kill his family and himself? Someone very very selfish and depressed. Someone I don't understand at all. Sorry to be so depressing in my last two entries. I am grateful to be alive and safe and to have a loving husband who makes good choices. Life can get awfully messy when you don't. Perhaps it is better to be the come at home and play with your kids type after all.

Hug a little tighter

Well I hugged my kids a little tighter today as I was reminded how precious and sometimes short life can be. A friend of mine from church lost her husband of 15 years to cancer this week, and I attended the funeral. I have only known this family since we moved here to Iowa, but I have been so impressed by them! It was interesting to hear a bit more about his life. I was asked to bring funeral potatoes and was supposed to have them there by 9:00am. Circumstances in the morning put me in the car at 8:15 (Drew forgot to bring a poop-bag with him when he walked Abby this morning, so being the responsible person that I am, we were driving my usual 'walkers' to school. With a short stop to pick up her droppings on the way-lovely!). SO, I decided to drop off the potatoes as well a bit early. Good thing I didn't drop the potatoes on the way to school and deliver the poop to the chapel- THAT would have been embarrassing...

BTW did you know that there is a website depicting what LDS people do for a funerals and listed as a tradition are 'funeral potatoes' along with a recipe? Not that surprising I guess. The preschool teacher was asking me all kinds of questions about appropriate LDS funeral procedure, to pass along correct information to fellow friends of hers at University Preschool. Christi had kids who went to the same preschool. Teacher KiKi mentioned the potatoes to me just as I was about to ask about it (I swear!)

So I was there early and happened to see the hearse pull up delivering Rick's body. I didn't really time it this way, but as I was headed into the building so were they. Two funeral-home workers, myself and the casket. I asked if I could hold the door, and they were appreciative. I told them I was proud to do it, delivered my funeral potatoes and went home to think. Life is hard, and it's so hard to know what to say to them. But having been through the loss of my mother to cancer, I can empathize a bit more I guess, and realize that everything I have can be taken away in a moment. Troy is out of town this week, and I just keep thinking that it's hard to be the only adult around, and this is what Christi faces from now on. She is very capable and strong. She will have to be from now on I guess. I pray for her and her children, and with mine- I can hug them a bit tighter and be a bit more grateful today...

PS I just snapped at Evan who scared me to death while I was trying to focus on my blog and what I wanted to say. So much for good intentions. (I have so much to learn!)

DC here we come! (Again)

Well, it's finally official. We are heading to Walter Reed for the next 4 years at least. If you had told me this a month ago I wouldn't have been so thrilled. But it feels so nice to know what our plans are. It feels like a big load lifted. Sorta like the last month of pregnancy, where you just don't care anymore how or what happens you just want it to be OVER! So my concerns with the DC area have also started to fade since I have been looking at the falling housing prices. It would appear that we can actually afford a decent home there. (Depending on what you call decent). We thank our lucky stars that we sold our home there 3 years ago before the market changed. Somebody up there must like us. Hope He is still smiling when we try to get the stars to align in our favor when we go looking for a home with: 3 great schools, a good ward, good commute for Troy, and not too pricey. Could we actually be that lucky?!?

My Disappointment with the Amish

I was shocked today when an Amish woman ran a red light during dangerous driving conditions (ice-snow). There was a near miss to her vehicle and I had a good view of her face and she seemed totally oblivious to her careless mistake. My first thought was 'what is she doing behind the wheel? Don't they drive just horse and carriages?' then 'perhaps that is the answer to the bad driving skills.' She may not have been strict Amish (hence the joy-ride). She didn't have the bonnet-type hat. It was more of a doily-type cap that I see so often around here. They are always in dresses, and orthopedic shoes. Anyhoo, This is the 2nd time they have surprised me this week and the other time was more scandalous. Troy and I saw two ladies in similar dress enter Spencers in our mall the other night. Spencers sells all kind of pornographic cards, gag gifts, posters, etc. They post a warning sign I wished I had seen before entering with my children once to purchase a bulb for Nathan's lava lamp. Incidentally when I went to pay for my bulb and was in the middle of telling them off for not having a bigger sign, and actual largish spider crawled out of my sleeve down my hand and on the counter, freaking us all out. It was kinda a nice equalizer for us all. So maybe the Amish women were seeking lava lamp bulbs for their homes without electricity. Right...Maybe they were just feeling frisky and I should get off my high hurse and just stop judging them all the time. (reference to Farley Family Reunion and Nacho Libre).

Glasses and Frames

Something totally bizarro happened to T and I on our date last Saturday night. (T is Troy BTW- and BTW is By The Way). We were going to go to the movies and see Juno but we accidentally went to the wrong theater so we decided to grab a bite of dinner instead. We went to Panera (I love that place!), and then decided that I could possibly get some things at Target. (It's attached to our mall-weird eh?) We are running low on glasses since the kids keep breaking them and by the time everyone brings a cup to their room at night with water from our water cooler, there are basically no cups for breakfast the next day. We are reduced to plastic sippy cups at meal times quite often (classy- I know). Then there was the other item I could possibly look at at Target, some picture frames for our professional photos I had done of the kids lately. I have been carrying these pictures around in my purse for a while now (some go lengthwise and some horizontal and I can never remember what the make up is so I just put them in my purse. They have these cool clusters of frames all glued together at Target. Some go horizontal and some vertical and I wondered if maybe by some magic that my group of photos might match up with this cluster of frames. (this is taking a while to set up because I am rambling- sorry). Then the other option with our precious time away from the kids was to go and look for new glasses and frames for me since someone recently bent my glasses. They were due for a new prescription anyways and Troy had checked my eyes for me (now that was a torturous experience for both of us! Relatives make the worst patients. And care givers I may add). Suddenly I realized the pun, and I am a pun lover at heart. We could go get new glasses and frames at Target or we could get new glasses and frames at Pearl Vision. How weird is that!?! We ended up looking for a good 30 minutes at P Vision and were not impressed. So we got nothing in the end. End of date night...

inconvenient pain

Well, Yesterday I was walking Audrey to her preschool house (it's a 1930's farm-style home that has been a preschool for many years). This has been a killer winter with snow storm after snow storm. There was a recent ice storm that has everything covered in a thick sheet of ice. So I was holding Eliza in one arm and had Audrey by the hand and we were being so careful not to slide and fall. Audrey was anxious and pulling on me. I was counter-balancing and telling her to stop pulling. It's not what you are thinking I am sure. At this point I did not fall or hurt myself. Strangely enough it was when I got safely inside that I put the baby down, helped Audrey put away her things in her cubby and found that when I went to bend over and pick Eliza back up that my back suddenly went into spasm. I swear, this has never happened before. I feel like my body is falling apart. My back has been killing me for the last 24 hours. I can hardly lift the baby now. I went to see a physical therapist and he tells me I have a week glute muscle back there and I need to ice my back and do leg lifts to strengthen this butt muscle back into health and save my back. This could also be the reason my tailbone was so painful during pregnancy. I am getting old and falling apart! It's time to work this old bod back into shape I think...

Fabulous Party

Big GIrl turned 5 on Feb 13th. She had a 'friend party' that was quite the event of the season. It was Cinderella-themed, and we had the party girls pretend to be Cinderella by cleaning our house with various items. Duster, brooms, etc. When behold a knock at the door revealed a scroll with an invitation to a ball that 'every young maiden' was to attend. We made crepe paper gowns, presented princesses, danced to live violin and clarinet music provided by our brotherly band trio (Big Middle and Little Boy). We presented awards for best curtsy, best jewels, best twirler, etc. We then ran for the kitchen at the strike of midnight losing our slippers. We had a castle pinata, castle cake, and (non castle) presents. Then our slippers were found at the top of the stairs with crowns inside them (sugar cookies). It all happened within the 1.5 hours alloted and I wasn't even too wiped out at the end. We only had one princess who refused to participate in everything planned, but was fine to blow bubbles in the kitchen and watch the dancing from the couch. I'm glad it's over, but I find I need another project to keep me going. Perhaps my next focus will be on planning my trip to Morrocco in April or researching schools in the next place we will move to. If only we knew that bit of information- that would be nice! As usual the Army likes to make us wait and wait for our dreams to come true. Somewhat like Cinderella (sigh)...

Big Boy turns 14

Well Nathan has survived another year. He had a great day, as he celebrated his 14th birthday. I can hardly believe I have a child that old! When did this happen? He was a bit sad earlier in the month watching me prepare the invitations to Audrey's Cinderella-themed birthday party (coming up on the 16th). He said to me "I don't know why you are spending so much time on her party when my birthday is first" then "perhaps you are keeping my party a surprise for me?" Well... it has sorta been Tagg household policy that once you turn 11 the kid birthday parties with friends stop. Even when you are young enough we alternate years and only throw a friend party every other year. With 5 kids it's just too much to do them each year. But when I throw a party I go all out let me tell ya. I reminded Nathan of the Spiderman head pinata I made from scratch, and the huge web we made in the front room when he turned 5 and that seemed to satisfy him. I also mentioned the 'clue party' where we searched for Mr Body's killer all around the house in a person sized game of Clue (complete with a pool table birthday cake). Still I had sympathy for him wanting to make his day special. I got some balloons and sent him on a scavenger hunt around the house to find his presents. I had offered to let him have a couple friends over for pizza and a movie. In the end he had a buddy from the neighborhood over for cake and ice cream, then secretly stayed up late with Mom and Dad to watch a movie too mature for the rest of the kids. (BTW don't rent Transformers!!! I beg you). No friend party. He seemed to want to go for the extra presents instead of a party. I am very pleased with the young man Nathan is turning into. He is sensitive and caring. Smart, talented, funny, and nice to be around. Who could ask for anything more?

Ramble

Well I have not posted in a while. We are in a strange place these days waiting to hear where our next military assignment will be. It seems as if it will be one of two places (although with the army, you never know and should expect the unexpected). The two places we think it most probably will be are Walter Reed (in DC), or Ft Lewis in Tacoma Washington. The two Washingtons... One of which we have lived in before and are somewhat familiar with. Troy did his neurology residency in DC. We sold our fixer upper home there before moving to Korea. Turns out selling was the right thing to do because housing prices now are lower than what they were when we sold. Still- prices there are outrageous. Schools are good in certain areas, but raising teenagers there scares me. Heck- it scares me anywhere, but the teens in the DC area that I would see coming home in my neighborhood are the kind you don't really want to meet in a dark alley, much less send your kid to ride the bus with. I foresee that we'll be sent to DC as they have the most need for a neuro-opth guy with Troy's training. I am hoping against hope that we will be sent to the other Washington though. At least it would be closer to home and we could afford a decent home. I could handle the rain. It's daunting to think that this next move we make will be one of great importance and have a huge impact on our family in the state we are currently in (Nathan about to enter high school, Evan going into 7th grade). We will be there for possibly the next 4 years or more depending on what we do when we get out of the army. I want the next place to be a possible 'put down roots' place. Isn't that what every military wife wants? To put down roots? I guess I will just have to put my faith in God and hope that it all will turn out for the best. In the words of the great prophet GB Hinkely; "Things will work out, they usually do." Please just grant me a little patience with the waiting process Lord.