Good (expensive) news from the dentist.

Ash went to the dentist this morning... for the first time in several years! He hasn't had health insurance for years (and still does not), but his mom gave him $150 to go get a cleaning. Thanks mom!! The dentist said he has AWESOME teeth.... but some areas of his gums are so bad that if he doesn't do anything about it, he will have to have surgery in the near future. So the good news is, they can do one procedure and clean all the gunk out of his gums, and all he has to do is floss for the rest of his life and he will never need another dentist!! The bad news is... this procedure costs $1,000.

Of course, when choosing between $1,000 for the rest of your life or ignoring the problem and having a much more expensive surgery later... it is clear what we have to do. BUT OH MY GOSH WHAT A HUGE CHUNK OF CASH. Not something you want to spend right before you are expecting a child. Especially because Ash is unemployed still (we are waiting to hear back on a couple of leads for farm work, and exploring possibilities for music gigs with local bands).

I am ten weeks this week! I worked aaaaaalll day long today and it was EXHAUSTING, even though the little 4 month old was pretty good and happy for me. Everything but eggs, toast, and cheese makes me gag. So that's pretty annoying. My mom wants me to start taking a picture every week of my profile, but all i can see is bloating and I really don't want to take pictures of my distended bowels :)

Homeschooling my brother, day three, still going well. He is a very smart kid, it's obvious he just stopped caring while in public school. I don't think we are making him too miserable, he is extremely social and would love to go back to public school when he can, but he knows that probably won't happen until 11th grade.

My parents offered to let us work off some of our Europe trip debt through this homeschooling thing... I have to say, I appreciate the offer, the homeschooling takes up more time and effort than I thought it would. And now with this dental work in the future, it will be good to shave off some of that $2,500 (which, by the way, was totally worth it because it is probably the last traveling we will do until our kids are grown!!).

STILL SICK. My mom is worried that it might have turned into bronchitis now... 3 days of non-improving cough and green mucus production. One thing that helps is adding eucalyptus oil to boiling water, and breathing in the steam. It's so soothing. It makes my nose stop running, and my lungs and throat don't feel like I have been coughing. This effect only lasts about half an hour, but any relief is welcome! I am still also having strong food aversions and sudden onsets of nausea.

I missed all last week of work, and this week I have requests to ADD hours, and I don't even know if I will make any of the original ones. But after a point, I swear parents would rather I come over sick than I miss work again. I feel bad, a lot of people rely on me, but all I feel like doing is sleeping.

Ash and I start homeschooling my 15 year old brother Quinten tomorrow! He didn't even wake up until 2pm today, but he swears he will wake up at 10am every morning to do school with us. Ash has picked out "Slaughterhouse Five" as his first reading assignment. Any recommendations any of you have for books that a lazy 15 year old would enjoy (and no, he isn't interested in Harry Potter), pass it on. I can't even tell you what his interests are, ever since he started public school all he does is work out and listen to really bad hip hop. I don't care what kind of book it is, I just want him to enjoy reading ANYTHING.

IT'S A GLORIOUS DAY, 60 DEGREES!!