First Snow of the Season

Today after the boys left for school the snow started, by 10am there was an inch covering the grass. Yesterday the temperature was in the 60s, the ground is warm so wherever there is gravel there is no snow, but looking out into the backyard the scene is winter. And with 39 degrees it feels like winter.

Several times flakes came down that were so large they were bumping into each other, morphing into icy lace. Other times the snow was so small it looked like rain. In either case the flakes came fast and the temperature didn’t climb as the weatherman said.

Tad built a fire in the fireplace 15 minutes before the school bus was due. We put on our coats, headed outside, and found the snow had just stopped. Five minutes later the snow starts again fast and steady as the boys get off the bus. We watch the bare patches in the grass greedily soak up the new as we walk to the house.

At 5pm there is snow everywhere, 2 to 3 inches. The boys have talked Tad into taking the sleds into the backyard and trying out a slope or two.

The weather forecast says the temperature will be 31 degrees tonight, so tomorrow we may be greeting the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of fall dressed in white.

Justin Makes $28

Today Justin had 7 baby teeth pulled to make room for new permanent teeth. Looking at the picture you can see they had some big roots. You can also see we left them untouched—blood still intact.

First the dentist gave him laughing gas and let him watch Shrek on a big screen television mounted on the ceiling. After about 30 minutes Justin was smiling pretty big and didn’t seem too concerned about having teeth pulled even though it was the first time.

The dentist deadened his whole mouth since the seven teeth were pretty equally spaced throughout his mouth. Then in less than 30 minutes that seemed to me like 2 hours the dentist pulled all the teeth, put them in a big plastic tooth, and gave us instructions so we could go home.

As we paid Justin stood by the office door. He said, “I’m not in pain now, but it hurt several times, the cotton wads in my mouth are bloody, and I’d like to go home.”

We were home by 10:30am and taking to heart the number one instruction: watch Justin so he doesn’t bite his cheek because the deadening feels weird and he might chew on himself checking it out. Since the shot was to wear off by noon this was an easy job. All the cotton wads came out, Justin had soda and relaxed about half an hour. He wasn’t sleepy so I got out the craft kit I’d got as a surprise. He stitched three pictures from Eric Carle books in no time with his shoelace sewing kit.

By the time Grant got home from school at 4pm Justin looked as if he’d never had surgery. Wow, talk about fast healing-- he’s talking about eating pizza this weekend.