New Smile

Lauren lost her 3rd tooth today!

Where is health care going?

I had to add this to my blog. It was forwarded to me by my husband (who received it from someone else)! It is so true, and it almost brings me to tears. I would encourage each of you to take a LONG LOOK at the health care system that Obama is trying to push through. Is that truly what America wants?

AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE (even if we were not in the medical field), NO!

I am a General Surgeon. I endeavor to not think or speak too highly of myself, but neither will I diminish the importance of my craft.

I am the one who gets out of bed at 4 a.m. to come to your aid when your appendix has ruptured and you are suffering the agony of your peritonitis.
I am the one who will resect your perforated diverticulitis and watch over you while you lay unconscious and ventilated in the ICU.
I am the one who will oversew your duodenal ulcer before you bleed to death.
I am the one who will cut out your colon cancer, and put the ends of your intestine back together again.
I am the one who will remove your shattered spleen when you've been in your automobile accident.
I am the one who WILL get IV access when you need your medications and nobody else has been able to get the stick.
I am the one who will hold your hand and cry with you when I tell you the biopsy came back positive. Then I will look you in the eye and tell you how we're going to beat back that monster together.
I am the one who will fix the hernia that keeps you from being able to do your job, and get rid of the hemorrhoids that you're too embarrassed to tell anybody are making your life miserable.
I am the one who will remove your gallbladder when it has become filled with stones, and do it with two sticks and a video camera through incisions that will barely be noticeable 6 months from now.

I have spent years of my life studying the human body to get to this point. I have spent a king's ransom on my education. I spent the best years of my youth making sacrifices for my goal and being a little more serious than my peers. I have asked my family to continually make sacrifices for your benefit. I do it because I love what I do and I care deeply about you, my patient. I do it despite the fact that my kids will once again have dinner without their father tonight and my wife will wonder what time I might be coming home. I do it in spite of the attorneys who are waiting for me to make a single mistake, and the malpractice insurance that costs more than many people make in a year. I have been forced to accept ever decreasing reimbursement while facing ever increasing overhead costs. I have not complained when you "forgot" your co-pay, or failed to pay the balance of your bill for months on end because you are now feeling better and it seems a little less important than it once did. I have dealt with the endless documentation requirements and bureaucratic nonsense foisted upon me. I have watched my once noble profession abdicate all control to people who have no concept of what I do and care nothing of the ramifications of their decisions.

But make no mistake, there is a limit to what I will tolerate. When the value of my services is ever diminished, I WILL reach a point of no longer offering them. I will be taken for granted only so long. If you create an environment that does not reward my efforts, and in fact demonizes them, who will you convince to take my place when I am gone?

Middle School

Today I took Tyler up to his school to get his schedule and locker assignment. It is hard to believe that my oldest is going to start middle school in 2 days. He found out that his locker is on the bottom which was a bummer for a big, tall boy. He will have a girl who is a few inches shorter than him reaching over him to her locker on top! I think that was bad planning on someone's part!!!!

Tyler practiced his combination lock. It took us a while to figure it out! Honestly, I can not stand combination locks because I can never get it right....gggrrrr!!!! So I was not much help when he began to have a break down after trying 2 or 3 times without success. I had to calm him (and myself down), and I finally solved the puzzle! Seriously, I liked my little punch combination locker--much more practical and less time consuming to open 10 times a day!!!

Look at that organized locker. He was so proud of his shelves, dry ease board, and pencil cup. He opened up all the school supplies I had purchased. He questioned everything he took out. All I could say was, "some teacher must have wanted it b/c it was on the list." He brought his TEXAS Longhorn magnet "to decorate". While he arranged everything, I watched the girls file in and open up their lockers. Wow! Seeing those girl lockers brought back memories from the 1990s of "wallpapered lockers, color coded notebooks, friend pics, and magnets"! It just made me smile :0). The fact remains...boys are basic and girls add all the frills!

Beach Vacation

Each summer we try to take a beach vacation right before school starts. It is a great end to the summer! This year we tried a new condo place, the CARIBE, that was recommended by one of our lake neighbors. It was awesome! It was on the bayside of Orange Beach which made us a little nervous at first to not be right on the water. But it had very easy access to the gulf and intercoastal waterway. We actually ended up swimming in the later because it was so clear, had few jellyfish, and had a ton of shells!

Papa and Corynne spent most of the time collecting beautiful shells off the ocean floor. It was an easy dive down in the clear water.

At Grammy's request, Papa and Tyler carved out steps to get up the steep bank of sand.

Lyndsey loved to slide down the bank into the water!

A mermaid and A muscle man!

Beach Portraits

It is a tradition to take beach portraits each year. Each year I think this will be so much easier than last year. Every year when we finish I say, "next year I am going to hire a photographer to take these." This year was no exception!!!!

Yeah...we are done! Let go do something fun.......

14 Years

14 years ago today, JM and I said "I do". Time has gone by so fast. We actually celebrated last week because we knew that we were going to be traveling to the beach from opposite directions today. JM took us to Garrett's which is a very fancy restaurant here in Montgomery (JM's choice for the evening). We had a wonderful evening just "catching up" and eating yummy food!!! Then we went to the musical "Beehive" at the ASF (my choice for the evening). It was a cute musical full of 60s music and humor ---and very girly. JM did agree that this would have been a great play for me and my girl friends if we had met in Montgomery this year!

As for today, we met at Lambert's in Foley for a late lunch. The girls and I were coming down from Montgomery to the beach, JM and Tyler were coming up from fishing along the coast of Florida, and my parents were meeting us from TEXAS. Tyler did excuse himself to the bathroom at the beginning of our meal only to go to the staff and ask that our anniversary be announced. I am not sure which was more embarrassing -- standing up in crowded restaurant when they announce your anniversary OR being paged over the PA system because your daughter "lost" her parents! Lauren went to the bathroom at the end of the meal and could not find her way back to the table!!!! We were laughing, and she was crying. We did praise her because she did do the right thing by going to the front desk for help!

Dora the Explorer

I had seen on FB that a few people had spotted Dora at a local mexican food restaurant but I just assumed it was a one time event and I MISSED IT. Then while reading a Montgomery magazine I saw that it was a 1st Monday event.

Lyndsey lives and breathes Dora. She has it on continuous play on one TV in our house, and she knows how to turn that TV on/off. (I know that admits BAD parenting!) She is the 4th child, and sometimes the peace Dora gives me is worth the title of BAD PARENT of the YEAR!

To say the least, Lyndsey was bouncing off the walls when I told her we were going to see Dora tonight. Her actually comment was "they are going to let Dora out of her cage?" I was confused until I figured out she thought Dora was locked into the TV (cage)!

Look, Mom, Dora is here...

She got a little upset because Dora would not talk!

They were also shooting a TV commercial that night at the restaurant so Lyndsey and Lauren posed for the picture.