The Hazard Chronicles

This week has been crazy. Let's go day by day:

Monday:

I don't have to go to work on some Mondays so we have an abundance of 3-day weekends to plan fun activities. This week we planned on going to the Coeur d'Alene beach and City Park. Ultimately we did get to go and it was great, but the events leading up to it were pretty hectic.

First, Jackson grabbed a giant butcher knife as Rachel was loading the dishwasher. He is so fast, and we didn't even realize he had it for a while, but then we saw him runing wildly around the room holding it by the blade. We tried our best to stop the inevitable, but we keep our knives pretty sharp and it didn't take long for poor Jack to let out a scream and drop the knife. His hand was instantly covered in blood. It was pretty gnarly.

After washing him off we saw the source of the damage, a deep (very deep) slice right in the meatiest portion of his middle finger. I am pretty sure that I saw the bone, but can't be certain since there was so much blood everywhere. The good news is that he could still bend his fingers at will (as evidenced by the fact that he fought us so hard as we were trying to get a look at it), so we decided that if we could stop the bleeding we could probably avoid a trip to the ER.

It took an hour-and-a-half of constant pressure (during which time he was actually very calm), super-glue (actually invented for surgical use), and a lot of paper towels before we had stabalized things to a slow ooze. After we were finally able to get a band-aid on it we wrapped his entire hand in athletic tape so he couldn't pick at the wound and put him to bed.

The good news about all this is that we miraculously avoided getting any blood on our new couches.

After Jack was safe in his crib we took a deep breath, glad that the emergency was over, and went in the play-room to get Addy ready for her nap. She wasn't there. Her diaper was. And so was the poop. Oh, the poop.

Being a parent can be very rewarding, but sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't just be easier to declare myself a total basket case and get admited to an institution.

Like I said, the afternoon was a lot of fun. We went to the beach and everyone (including Jackson) had a great time playing in the water and building sand castles. Oh- and just so you know, Jackson's finger (now, about a week later) is looking very good.

Tuesday-Friday

My first official work-week. I am getting paid to do dentistry. Overall, the transition from dental school to private practice has been a very humbling one. At school I felt like I was on top. Now, it is obvious that I have a lot to learn. This week I had some very good experiances, and some very, well, not-so-good ones, that make it clear to me that I still have a long ways to go. That said, I am super excited about the place where I am working. They will push me to get really good really fast.

Honestly, it's a little bit stressful right now to feel so far behind. The doctors I work with do pretty much everything and it only serves to highlight how basic the level of dentistry was that we actually learned in school. But I am pretty sure that I will learn more in the next six months than I would in 3-4 years in most other settings. This week alone I did bone grafting, molar endo, surgical extractions, Cerec, and impacted wisdom tooth removal (partial bony)...Basically a bunch of stuff that the dental school wouldn't even let us think about doing. It is nice because *most* of the time there is another doctor at the practice with me so I can ask questions if I need to. Sometimes the doctor leaves though...that's when things get stressful. Give me a few weeks though and I'm pretty sure I will be more confident about things.

Saturday

This was a good day, and a nice relief after a somewhat stressful week at work. To start it out we went on a family bike-ride around the area where we live. It is a beautiful area. When we got home we put Addy and Jack to bed and I played with Evelyn. When the kids woke up we all ate lunch and then went to the Post Falls beach which is just 5 minutes from our house (not the same beach we went to on Monday).

Okay- I am in love with this beach. Actually with this whole park. It is called Q'emeln Park (your guess is as good as mine on the pronounciation), but it has a big grassy area, lots of shade, a beach, a playground, rock climbing, fishing, a boat launching area, 3.5 miles of hiking, and lies just upstream of a kayaking play spot. I don't think I could imagine a better place.

Oh, and the beach? It's awesome! The depth increases so gradually that Addy and Jackson can wade out about 15-20 feet before I even need to start watching them closely. Evelyn can go even farther. This makes it so that one adult can easily watch all three kids. As you get further out into the water the depth eventually gets to about 12 feet (for those of us who actually want to swim, kayak, etc.), but it takes a good 200 yards to do it.

That night we got a baby-sitter who came and fed our kids and put them to bed. We went rock climbing. It was pure bliss.

To finnish the day off, Rachel and I went to Paul Bunyan's hamburger joint (a local place) to try out their food. In my opinion it is the best hamburger place I have ever been to-and I'm not just saying that. I don't take these things lightly. The prices were really reasonable too and I think that between this place and Taco Loco I might actually start gaining some weight.

One can always hope :)

Sunday

A welcome day of rest.

I don't have to work again tomorrow so we are planning to go back to the beach. At this rate I might actually get a tan this summer- something I have NEVER done before.

One can always hope :)

Here we are climbing. This particular climb is one that Rachel has been working on. Just above her in the picture lies the under-cling-move-of-death that she has been struggling to get. One day, Rachel...One day.

Just playing at the beach. If you look right above my back you can see part of the play-ground. It is nice because from the same location you can watch kids in the water as well as the ones on the toys without having to move.

Rachel on our bike ride. I had to include this picture because I was riding my bike while I took it and since I wasn't watching where I was going Evelyn and I ended up going over the curb, hitting a large rock, and careening down a steep embankment. I'm proud because not only did I manage to save mine and Evelyn's lives, but I got a pretty good picture as well. Next time I think I'll just get off the bike though.