Ortho Appointment made

I finally called today the Pediatric dentist and ortho in Syracuse to see about getting Cody an appointment. Wouldn't you know they could get us right in on Sept. 8th - to bad that is the first day of school for the boys so that didn't work. So we ended up with October 1st. More time for my anxiety to kick into over drive.

I have heard a lot of great things about this doctor. After visiting their website, I found out that there are 3 pediatric dentist and an orthodontist right in the building. So the care would all be in one spot. Dr. Tatum recommends this doctor as this doctor volunteers his time to be on the craniofacial team. I value Dr. Tatum's opinion a lot so for him to recommend this guy means a lot to me. This all seemed like the perfect place UNTIL I read the new patient welcome letter where it stated they don't actually bill the insurance companies. Patients pay for services and then submit claims to their insurance for payment. That totally sucks. How on earth do people come up with that type of money to pay for something up front and wait to get the money paid back to them. So, I am not sure what we are going to do. I am going to keep the first visit because I want to know what Dr. Dillingham suggest to us. I am still waiting to hear back from our local dentist and will probably meet with them too. That way I can compare the two. Then we need to make the best decision for Cody and will have to figure the rest out later. I guess you always find a way, right? Or so I am hoping. I was just really hoping to not have to be worrying about this.

When talking briefly with Brett about a possible plan he did give me a very nice compliment and that was that he knows I value his opinion but when it comes to our kids he knows that I will make the best decision for them and he trusts me 100%. So that made me feel good.

Then the annoyed side of me took over and just really want to ask this doctor why on earth DON'T they direct bill the insurance. I mean wouldn't that make more sense and a lot less stressful on the patients and their families. UGH. DOCTORS - need I say more?

Fun day with Gimmie

The boys had a little extra special day today with their Gimmie. Mom decided she didn't want to just "stay home" so she decided to go pick Karly up and take the four of them to McDonald's for lunch and playing and then onto a park for more fun. They had a lot of fun and truly enjoyed our nice summer day. Hard to believe that school starts next week, football season starts this weekend and Fall is right around the corner.

Picnic Pictures

Bobo the Clown! He kept loosing his strap and the kids thought this was hysterical!
Cody was totally into Bobo. It surprised me because I didn't think they would be.
Bobo doing a wand trick. Cody later told me this was his favorite point.
Dylan hanging 10. See his scratch on his forehead (Alli we sort of sympothized with you - hope yours is better)....He had a fight with a tree branch and the tree one. Started getting a black and blue spot on the side of his head - we will see what morning brings.
A little added bonus. In the park across from the pavilion this hot air balloon went off. As it went over head Brett asked them if they found our smiley face balloons to send them back! :)

Video of Bobo doing his first 'act' with us. Thanks so much to Bobo for donating his time to our event!

Lucky Smiles Picnic

Today we hosted our 2nd family fun day for our local craniofacial families. We had a fantastic day and everyone had a great time. This event was much smaller than last year. Last year we had it at a zoo in Syracuse and we had almost 150 people. This year we had 50 but still had fun. I think the location is what did it in for most. Being in Binghamton and almost all of our invites went to Syracuse families - the drive was just to much for them. So you live and learn. This picnic was a challenge for me this year as it was my first one of it's kind and I had so much other personal stuff going on. Between vacations, other parties and my mind pre-occupied with things going on with Cody, not to mention lining up donations and getting people to return a phone call - but the day went off without a hitch (or close to it). The whole event was sponsored by cleftAdvocate and thanks to Debbie we couldn't have done it without them. So a huge thank you to them. We also had two local guys donate their time and services to provide our entertainment to the kids. We had BoBo the Clown. A HUGE hit with the kids. He had them up and helping, throwing their magic dust around and everyone was in stitches. We also had a balloon artist that came and made all sorts of balloon figures for the kids. They loved this. If one popped, out came another. My neighbor came and did our face painting. The kids all looked so cute - of course though my 3 weren't impressed. A co-worker of mine came and took all of our pictures. He does it on the side and it was just so nice to have an event photographer. I saw lots of families mingling and it was so nice to see old faces and meet new ones. Its also amazing that when you get talking with other parents how much our kids do have in common. I personally came away from today with some great connections.

A big thank you to my family for helping and supporting me. I couldn't do all that I do without them. Today went seamless. My mom came to the house to watch the kids while Brett and I went to the park to set up. So much easier than having them under foot. After getting to the park, I realized that the pavilion wasn't where I thought, so I frantically called my brother-in-law and he came to my rescue with a sign to put at the end of the drive to let families know where to come. Also thanks to my sister who just steps up with setting things up, she knows what I want and where to do it without asking and mingles right in with the families. And to my husband, who sometimes I never get to thank and sometimes we seem to be at each others throats........he was my run man. He ran to get balloons filled, pick up pizza, call me from the party store as I send him all over the isles to get things that I just have to have, never complained - well until the balloons escaped from the Explorer and floated high into the sky! Yah, he was kind of ticked. He was tying smiley face ones around the park so people knew where to go, had gotten 2 up and left the windows open and out they went. So.......he's not in charge of balloons again! :) .

And of course a big thank you to my Cody, who would of ever thought that 4 years ago when you came into my world we would be where we are today. You are my inspiration to help other families on our journey. It's not an easy one and I don't doubt we will have lots of bumps but your smile lights up my life, to hear you giggle sends a shiver down my spine and to see you interact at an event in your honor (because without you I wouldn't be doing what I am doing) puts a huge smile on my face. I love you!

Friday Night FUN

Tonight was hair cut night in the Luckey household. The boys did fantastic for their dad. Each one standing on the chair and listening while Daddy cut. No whining, no crying, no fighting - just a good hair cut. Maybe it helped that I said no milk shakes if they carried on. Whatever it takes! They needed them so bad.

Today I finally heard back from the pediatric dentist regarding Cody's x-rays. Well sort of....she called the house and talked with my Mom. I really think they were hoping to get a voice mail. Basically the assistant said that she was looking into it and is waiting on the ortho to call back so they can discuss, but wanted to let me know. The dentist is on vacation until the 8th and then she would be in touch. Ok, I had these x-rays sent about a week prior to us leaving for Las Vegas. So that was middle of July. It is now the end of August (22nd) and I JUST got a call today. Not to mention I have called 4 times! They must of had ESP today because they were going to be getting another call from me. When my Mom told them that it appeared to be taking a long time, they replied "well we are dealing with specialist". Not a good excuse for me as I have dealt with many "specialist" and usually have a great turn around time. So - I'll wait for her to call me back but Monday I will also be calling the pediatric dentist/orthodontist on the team in Syracuse and see about going to see him. I think I would feel better anyway. This doctor - Dr. Dillingham works with Dr. Tatum and I only trust so many people inside of Cody's mouth.

Tomorrow is the Lucky Smiles family picnic. This has been a chore to organize this year and at one point it came close to canceling. We did have to cancel our morning training due to lack of interest but we have about 70 people coming for the afternoon picnic. We will have a clown, face painter, balloon artist, playground and some good ole pizza for everyone. It should be a great day! I look forward to seeing a few old families and meeting some new people. I'll be sure to share tomorrow how it goes!

A couple things

I got word back from the pediatrician today.....well let me back up to Friday. I called the ped before we left to go home because I hadn't heard from him if he had talked with the Endo yet. I was some what glad he hadn't because I had something else I wanted to share. Cody has seemed to go from being tired all the time to not being tired at all. Going to bed late, being first one up (before me) and just acting sort of hyper. My concern was that maybe he was going from one extreme to the other. So Dr. Miller called me at 6:30 as we were almost home. I shared the info and he said he would get a hold of Dr. Woo (Endo) on Monday or Tuesday and get back to me. He felt what I told him was valuable because the Thyroid levels are controlled by the Pituitary gland and that gland doesn't seem to be stabilizing itself. So tonight he calls me and he did talk with Dr. Woo. Dr. Woo was concerned that his TSH level started at a 9.25 but was some what relieved that it went down on the second blood draw to a 6.45. So it feels it's going in the right direction. He would like to re-test the blood work in a couple more weeks and then talk. He just doesn't want to rush to put him on a drug if he can help it. Which I agree. So we will retest and go from there.

Now to something that just irks me to no end. McDonald's Drive Thru! All you out there are probably going "uh huh". Tonight I had to go pick up some supplies for the picnic on Saturday and the boys asked to get McDonald's. Fine by me as we have no food in the house and really need to go shopping. So we go. They all get Happy Meals. Now these things aren't cheap - times by 3. So we get home (whole way home the boys are talking about there toys) and get inside...open them up....NO FREAKING TOY! Oh I was so mad. Not to mention so are they. Isn't that one of the main reasons for a happy meal - you get a toy. To a kid they could forget the food - but don't forget the toy. So instead in one box we got 2 french fries. All the food was right, this time. I didn't go back as this McDonald's wasn't anywhere near home. I looked in my food bag but figured I didn't need to look in the boxes. You bet your bottom dollar - next time I will.

Some of my favorite pictures!

Here are some pictures that I needed to catch up on. No particular order - to tired to re-arrange.....

Shark picture from the Shark Reef in Las Vegas.....he was above us. Not a great picture but you can see his teeth. The boys thought this to be cool!
Off we go....on the airplane and ready to take off. They LOVED this!!!
A tank full of Jellyfish. It was so much neater in person.
Tyler swimming @ Auntie's. He loves this car and will go all over the pool.
Back in Vegas......Brett and Dylan in the pool. Dylan's new nickname is "fish"

From the Baby Shower. My sister-in-law, Kristie @ 30 weeks prego....Baby Jack is inside.
My family.....(me, Kristie, my mom, my brother Kevin and my sister Tanya).
Kristie and Kevin with the cradle that my Dad made.
The super yummy cake. This was also the theme of the shower. Isn't he cute!!!!
Cody posing on the pool lounge! (Back in Vegas)