Life Keeps on Going

Here are some updates and a current snapshot of our family.

Juevos Rancheros pizza style breakfast. Rachel can pop out amazing meals in no time.

Our new place has a park about a stone's throw away. It makes it so easy to go there often. Our upstairs neighbors from Taiwan have a 2 year old boy named Nathan that the kids get along with great. We have an open door policy with them: that is, either of our kids are welcome to go over to the other's house and play without big arrangements or feeling bad that the other is watching our kids.

Olive, Hannah, Nathan (neighbor) and Heber at Nellie's Cave Park

In other words, when our kids want to go to his house, they ask us and then let themselves out our front door, walk up the stairs and knock on their door and play for a period of time. And since we have stairs coming into our back porch he does the same thing through the back. I'd say he mostly comes to our house when he gets bored.

Kimball moved in Late May. Both of us chose different degrees (Civil Engineering and Geography) but have somehow chose similar careers (GIS applications in Civil Engineering, Planning, etc). Our skills are so similar, in fact, that last year he was able to live with us in Austin, TX working in the same office a few doors down from mine, often on the same projects. This year he is again working in my office for the summer, but now we are only a one or two feet from each other in side by side cubicles. Furthermore, we're both working on the Virginia Tech Hazard Mitigation Plan, him on Hurricane/Tornado hazards and me on Flood and Infrastructure damage/failure.

Like good brothers we either ride our bikes or the bus together to work. The Huckleberry Trail is a nice 15 minute stroll through the forest that is a great way to start and end the day.

In the evening, when we find the time, we like to play Heroes of Might and Magic (nerd alert!) just like the good ol' days growing up in Globe.

Rachel keeps busy with play group on Wednesdays; planning compassionate service for the many nearly full term pregnant women in our ward (There are so many at this time of year. Even for our ward where you'd expect that being full of young graduate student families like us.); Doing a mini-preschool on Fridays with Natasha and her sun Yegor (a Russian family that she met at the park); working on art projects (see below for two of her latest); And just being friends to everyone. I never realized what a great socializer she is. She's not necessarily extroverted and loud, but she is great at entertaining guests and friends we have over for dinner. People love hanging out with her, which means almost every day of the week she's at someone's house or them at ours. I can't say the same about myself.

Heber is our little man of the house. He likes to keep order by enforcing the rules on the girls when they get out of line. He'll clean up our whole house if it means he gets to watch Thomas the Train. He's got tougher skin than the girls, so when he misbehaves I can exile him up on the pull-up bar to think about what he's done without having an emotional breakdown like...

Heber's laughing/slightly nervous face

Hannah is our sweet and responsible oldest girl. She loves helping her mother make food and paint pictures/nails. She loves eating vegetables. In fact the other day Rachel went shopping with just Hannah. Out of the blue this large, black lady busted up laughing. Rachel turned and the lady asked her, "Is that your daughter?"

"Yes," Nervous shock goes through Rachel thinking what did she do now?

Laughing she responds, "She just pulled off a piece of lettuce and ate it. I've never seen a kid do that. That's good."

Her and Heber also love being told Heney and Habbah stories at night (make no mistake Heney and Habbah are a completely different set of twins from Hebey and Hannah. Any similarities are just coincidences.). She also insists on a Baby BamBam story at night which is definitely not about...

Olive is out precious little baby. She's definitely more spoiled than the others—doesn't like to eat her vegetables and demands to be held and snuggled. I think it's safe to say that she is a daddy's girl (as she quietly sits on my lap as I type.). She is starting to talk more and will be going to nursery in a month.

Olive in her hand-picked outfit

I'll be out of town all next week in Emittsburg, MD for some training and then again nearly the whole month of July for Air Force duties.

The 10+ lbs Pizza Challenge

It seemed doable, though never done. It looks like 2 large pizzas, though it's the size of four. The challenge is if you and a friend can finish the 10+ lbs pizza in 35 minutes, you get it for free. If you can't you pay the $40 cost. If you throw up, you pay a $25 fee for disturbing the customers.
My brother Kimball and I attempted but ultimately failed. Although we did better than the two other challengers. It was a lot thicker than it looked and had a lot more cheese. In fact, a feeling of sickness was more inhibiting than my stomach capacity. But even if we had an hour I don't think we could have done it.

Before

After

Botox for TMD, Part II

The office for my Botox was near DC. The office was the fanciest doctors office I have ever been in. Very designer, very lux. All the other patients seemed very snobby (to put it nice). As I was filling out paper work and waiting, one of the patients told the secretary, "My appointment was for 20 minutes ago and last time I had to wait 15 minutes. Is this how your office works? Late appointment?" The secretaries dealt with her graciously although she seemed rude to them.

I was also surprised to see two teenage girls there who seemed to hint that they weren't there for medical reasons like jaw surgery but more cosmetic reasons.

I really liked the doctor and nurse there. They were very skilled and familiar with my TMD (this was his area of expertise) and they were very friendly and kind. They seemed to really like me too. We went over a long detailed history of my jaw. The doctor examined it and told me that it was muscular related and not because my bones where out of place. He also discussed a lot of information with me on TMD. He told me to throw away my old night guard because the type I had was acting like a chew toy which was making the problem worse. He discussed how Botox would speed along the healing processes. Instead of making an extra appointment to perform the Botox he did it during my consultation visit.  I was kind of scared of the long skinny needles but they just talked to me during it and I was able to get through it ok. I had to flex and release my jaw as they injected the Botox. After it was done it just felt like popped pimples. But I felt a little strange for a day or two afterwards. I also noticed within hours that my jaw was already loosening.
PS Thank you Lindsay for that link.

Botox for TMD, Part I

My sister-in-law, Lindsay, wanted to know more details about how I got Botox. But first a background post to fill all you other readers in.

The Nature of The Beast
I have TMD (commonly but incorrectly referred to as TMJ). My jaw is so tight that it causes me to get headaches and tight shoulders. About 98% of the time I have a dull all encompassing headache. On top of that I get sharper, intense headaches generally on a daily basis. They vary in degree of intensity, the most painful are the migraines that are sensitive to light, moving and noise. I have had this problem for more than ten years.

How I Found Out What It Was
My general doctors (I had two) could not determine what it was. My first doctor looked into diabetes and other blood related problems. My second doctor just wanted to give me pills to mask the symptoms. They both had my eyes checked. The second time I got them checked they said that I needed glasses. I thought it was a brain tumor for awhile. My mom thought maybe it was hormone related. Then last summer I found out on my own that it was really TMD (temporal mandibular joint disorder), a tightness of the jaw muscles. It was a huge relief just to know what it was!

Rules I Live By

I have a few rules that I live by. Minimal processed sugars, I weigh the sugar against the size of headache that I'll have later from it. No gum or hard chewing. LOTS of water. Stretching. Good nights rest. Decrease stress. Stay calm and relaxed in general. Neck and back massages (my favorite). Good posture.

Treatments for TMD

• Jaw surgery is costly and takes a LONG time to heal from. My bones did not need reconstruction, so surgery was not necessarily. (Sigh of relief)
• I ended up getting Botox shots in my jaw a month ago while we were in DC. I was VERY hesitant to do this because isn't Botox for vain, crazy, rich, or famous people? I didn't feel I fit that stereotype. Botox weakens the jaw muscles causing them to be less tight. After doing a LOT of research it seemed to be a great option for me. (I'll write more details in my next post.)
• I also got a better night guard, special for teeth grinders. I wear it at night and around the house during the day. It helps especially at night when I am grinding my teeth, which makes my jaw tight. Night guards help retrain the jaw muscles to stay open and not clamped together
• I also have tried several alternative medicine type methods such as EFT, cleanses, self-hypnosis, Chinese medicine techniques, chiropractic, miotechnic massage, specialty yoga, healthier eating, physical therapy, meditation, etc. I am still trying to work several of these into my daily life.

Living With It Now

I still have a dull constant headache all day long. My intense headaches have been more manageable though. My jaw muscles are definitely not as tight or strong because of the Botox. And my jaw placement has improved because of the better night guard.

I often wonder what it would be like to be a "normal" person, a person without a constant headache. My headaches definitely cause me to be more introverted. They take a lot out of me. I feel like I am in "survival mode" the majority of the time. I go about 5 months then I have a break down where I just go crazy from having to hold this burden for so long. But despite all the weight of carrying this around and rarely getting complete relief, I generally feel positive about it. I feel like I have more compassion for others because I often wonder what unseen burden they carry, just like myself. I honestly believe that my headaches have been and are a school master for patience, wisdom and compassion.

Good to the Core

April's Happenings

My ulterior (and often primary) motive in blogging is that it also serves as a family journal. In that spirit, I'm going to recap what's been going on for the last month or so.

Rachel's 24th birthday was on March 2nd, but it was about a month after that that one of her birthday presents finally arrived in the mail—a journal of her first 24 years of life. In my free time and typed her handwritten journals (about 5 books that were only about 1/4th full each) into her ldsjournal.com account. You can back date the entries and do a lot of other stuff. I use it for my personal journal-ing and recommend it.

We moved out of one apartment and into another and could not be happier. Compared to our old place our new place has washer/dryer, an extra bedroom, bigger in general, many new upgrades (kitchen/bathroom floors, ceiling fans, floor heaters), a back porch, a back yard, a bus stop right in front, a park a stone's throw away, and costs the same. We signed a lease through June 30th, 2013. 

Hannah is potty-trained. Here she is below getting an ice cream shake from Cookout (This place deserves a post of it's own. Everyone who has visited us has gone there and loves it, kids and adults alike). Having twins for me is as natural as being married—I never knew any kid scenario without twins. But I try to think about how it makes things different some times. I feel like teaching them things is a lot harder, potty-training being one of those. Hannah has led the way in acquiring new skills (e.g. walking, talking). Heber is doing okay, but has a way to go. But he excels in other ways (i.e. brave, diligent, persistent).

The day after we moved into our new place, we left and drove up to Washington D.C. for a couple of days to pick up Kimball and Lindsay from the airport, go to the D.C. temple, and see some of the patriotic monuments. It's about a 5 hour drive, so we rented a vehicle since ours hasn't been very trustworthy lately.

We only had time to visit the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial wall. The White House had a long line just to get near it, so we had to settle for a distant view. However, I thought riding the subway was a sight in itself. It was a 3 minute escalator down into.

3 minute escalator down to subway

Daddy and daughter in front of the white House

Heber and Talmage in the Museum of Natural History

Heber was captivated from beginning to end. He didn't nap until the ride back to Blacksburg

Vietnam Memorial Wall

In front of the Lincoln Memorial

Olive, Hannah and Heber on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument

Heber and Hannah in front of the Lincoln Memorial statue

Aunt Lindsay with Hannah and Olive

Kimball, Talmage and Heber pestering the ducks

Hebey being Squeeby

D.C. Subway

For the next several days we got to enjoy the presence of my brother Kimball, sister Lindsay and her boyfriend Steve at our house. We took them out to some of our favorite places like Due South BBQ, Cookout (of course. I think Steve and Kimball went here 3 or 4 times in their short time), and Lefty's Grille.). Interestingly, 

Just as we moved in the Town of Blacksburg began a project to put a new sidewalk all along our street.

Kimball and Steve both had interviews while here that sealed up jobs for them. Steve comes out next week to work as an ICU nurse in Bristol, VA and Kimball will come a couple of weeks later as an intern in Blacksburg, VA in my office. Just to give you some context of these places , here's a map.

Since they left we've been riding our bikes around everywhere, eventually trying to get to the point where we no longer use our car at all. So I'll end this with a story of pictures.

Ethiopian food at Excellent Table. Different but good.

Frozen yogurt at Frost Parrot. Not different and delicious.

Rachel's backside down the Huckleberry Trail

Talmage's front side on the Huckleberry Trail

Multi-tasking on three computers

Hannah probing the produce

Heber contemplating his appetite

Biking through town

Hannah reading/telling stories to Heber

Piled on top of our favorite girl