The inner goodness of the giant cake pop.

Giant cake pop for her birthday!

13,880 days ago, my beautiful wife took her first breath of fresh hospital air and saw the world for the first time. While many of those days were experienced before we met, we are approaching the midway point, and soon most of her days will be noted as “with me” rather than “before me.”  She has been my wife for 4,460 of those days. She has been my rock, my confidant, my best friend, my lover, and the mother to my boys. I love her with all my heart, and wish her a wonderful Day 13,881.

Christina and I woke up bright and early yesterday, poked our heads outside, and rethought our plans for the day. The weather was cold… and dreary. The forecast called for a good bit of snow and some slush throughout the day. But we pushed on. We hopped into our gear and into the car. Then we headed 45 miles to our destination… the Valentine Couples 5K run to support Amnesty International.

We got there, and, yep, it was still cold. No snow yet, but still cold. We checked in, got our race number, and prepared for our run. We didn’t expect much of ourselves as we are not hard-core runners. We “jog” to stay in shape and work off those extra portions. But we were ready to enjoy ourselves and appreciated the thought that this particular run was low key. Of course, there were a few who had to come out and “show off,” but we laughed at such shenanigans (who needs a 5 minute mile?). They released us hounds, and we trekked through the streets and a bit of off-roading for 3 miles.

At mile 1, the gentleman told us our time. Both Christina and I looked at each other because it far surpassed our expectations… 10m28s. While that is not breaking any records, that was good in our book… especially seeing as our best run around our home has been in the vicinity of the 14 minute mark. At mile 2, we were told 22m12s. Still great. By the 2.5 mile mark, the aches and pains were presenting themselves, but we pushed through that wall, and our final 3 mile times were 37m54s and 37m55s.

Christina kept telling me to go ahead during the race. I refused. Because my stride is longer, I have to slow my pace for her. One part of the story is that we have been preparing for this together, and seeing as it was a couple’s run, that’s what I wanted it to be. Her and I enjoying each other’s company throughout the event. The other part of the story is not so lovey dovey. She doesn’t seem to understand that if I go much faster, I’ll have to take a break much more often. So, in the end, I’d probably finish in the same amount of time. So, sticking with her pace keeps me breathing rather than passed out on the side of the road.

In any event, we had a great time. The weather waited for us to get back home (then the snow, sleet, slush… yuck!). We surpassed our goals and expectations. We joked that we were going to be happy as long as we didn’t come in “last.” But I’m sure we would have been fine with that too. It was a worthy cause and a good time.

I’m so very proud of my wife for pushing herself and achieving a personal best. And I’m impressed that she is already looking for the next couple’s run. She did great, and there is no one I would rather run beside.

My wife giggles like that when I rev my Challenger! Funny show.

What makes oral surgery so expensive? Our 16yo needs to have his wisdom teeth removed due to a lack of room for them. Fine! Unfortunately, our health insurance does not cover this. Not so fine! So, my wife set out to find an oral surgeon to do the dirty deed. She called around trying to set up a consultation before we forked over any money. Most wanted to charge a consultation fee around $100. But she found one that did not have the fee (or so we thought).

We drive 45 minutes to get to an appointment this afternoon. They check out our son. All looks fine, and the extraction should be a simple procedure. Schedule it as soon as you can, they tell us. Oh, and don’t forget to pay your consultation fee of $89 before you leave. Um, what? To avoid too much hassle, we fuss a bit, but pay the fee, and leave… certain we won’t return due to their surprise twist.

They do try to assure us that the $89 will be applied to the total bill if we have them perform the extraction. So, how much is the extraction, you ask? $2500.

So, back to my original question… what makes oral surgery so expensive? I pull my kids’ teeth for free. Heck, I pay them! (Umm, I mean the Tooth Fairy does!) $2500 divided by 4 wisdom teeth. Really, $625 per tooth? Are they extracting gold from his mouth and giving it to us? No! They are causing incredible amounts of pain in the matter of about 30 minutes. They send you home with a lollipop or sticker, maybe a prescription (that you will need to pay for too), and wish you well.

I know how much pliers cost. I know how much gauze costs. I have a hammer and a chisel. Squirt bottle. Vacuum. I have all the tools they do. I guess I’m just in the wrong business. Sure, this particular place knocks their patients out, but the shot worked just fine in my day. Why not now?

This is ridiculous to me. Absurd! Of course, we want our son to be well and not have issues with his teeth, so we will have the procedure done, but not after having a second consultation somewhere else - which will probably cost us as much as the first one. We’ll see!

Dean being cheesy on his birthday. 4 years and counting!

His song is a little bit repetitive, but it has style! Happy Birthday to our little 4 year old guy, Dean.

Happy Anniversary to my beautiful wife, http://lifewithboys.com. A dozen fantabulous years!

We are watching Zookeeper. Silly movie, but the kids are enjoying it. Hayden says he wants an elephant like the one in the movie, so I tell him to become a zookeeper when he grows up. A few minutes later…

“I want to be a zookeeper.” Hayden says.

“I want to be a monkey.” Dean announces.