Friday, August 20, 2021

7 Quick Takes about Things I Usually Don't Talk About, New Furry Friends, and Questioning the Wisdom of Tooth Extraction

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

1


Teenagers make me laugh. In passing one night I asked my 15-year-old, "Would you unload the dishwasher?"

"I would," she said. Then she paused and added, "Not."

I just looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"If I had a choice." 

More silence.

"Which I don't." 

2


I don't talk about current events on Unremarkable Files like, ever, but because it's sort of relevant to the blog I have to tell you I'm genuinely sad about the Taliban situation in Afghanistan. 

We just learned about Afghanistan for The Educational Summer Vacation two weeks ago, and I was so dismayed to hear that Kabul had fallen into Taliban hands again.

I was talking about it to my teenagers and my 7-year-old's ears perked up. "It did?!?" he shouted. "When??"

"Sunday," I told him.

"They took over the country on a Sunday?" he asked, horrified. He knows that in our faith, Sunday is a day reserved for church and family, and we avoid a lot of everyday activities like shopping and going to work. And, I suppose, staging armed takeovers of entire governments.

"Well," I said, not sure where to start, "They're Muslim so their Sabbath is on Friday instead of Sunday. Also, that's not a nice thing to do any day of the week."

But seriously, it's a sad development to watch in the news.

3


What's a product you never guessed would be indispensable in parenting? For me, one of them has to be shoe glue. I've saved a lot of money repairing the kids' shoes instead of buying new ones they're just going to grow out of in a few months. I use it so much that this {affiliate link} is actually the second tube I've owned.

Usually they wear out one at a time, but recently I was working on two shoes at the same time, gluing my 13-year-old's sole back into place and sewing a buckle back on a sandal when Phillip came in, looked at the operation I was running, and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm a cobbler now," I said. That's another odd job skill I could add to my resume now that I'm a mom.

4


We've been pet sitting this week for a friend's dog and guinea pig while they're on vacation. My daughter suggested I write a blog post about it, but instead titling it "Of Mice and Men" I call it "Of Dogs and Diarrhea."

We were supposed to pick Murphy (the dog) up from a kennel where he was boarding for the first half of his family's vacation, but after the first day his owners got a call saying he needed to be picked up now. Apparently he was scared of the other dogs, wouldn't come out of his crate, and tried to bite a trainer. Then he had stress-induced diarrhea in his crate overnight, and in the morning no one could get him out to bathe him.

Luckily he allowed us to take him back home and was as sweet as ever with us, but I could tell he was nervous and super-confused about what was going on. Why was he getting in our car? Why were we with him at his house instead of his family? And why did he smell so bad? (Actually, he probably liked that part.)

He let us bathe him, and after we dried him off he started rolling around playfully in the towel and licking our hands. "Well, at least he seems happier now," I observed.

My 17-year-old, who was helping me, said, "I think he's just accepted that nothing makes sense anymore."

5


It took a few days for the diarrhea to go away, but even with the accidents, Murphy is a total delight to watch. 

The kids request to go to "Murphy's house" all day long. Sometimes we all go over and hang out; sometimes just one or two people stay over to play with him or read. They live really close to us and I think being at his own place gives him more consistency, so it works for us.

Speaking of consistency, the first time we took Murphy on a walk the 5-year-old was wearing a Darth Vader mask he found in their kids' playroom and asked "Can I bring this?" I shrugged and said sure, not knowing it was going to become a regular thing.

Now every time I announce we're taking Murphy for a walk he's like, "Wait! I have to go get my helmet."


So there's that.

6


I noticed that businesses are starting to get into the meme game with their advertisements.


I'm noticing that memes aren't just stand-alone things that get shared on social media, more and more YouTubers are incorporating them into their videos and I think it's just going to get old real fast. 

And in 20 years people will be watching those videos going, "Why is there a random clip of some guy screaming in the middle of their videos?" Future cultures are going to think we were so weird.

7


My 17-year-old's dentist informed me at her cleaning that her first wisdom teeth was starting to come in and handed me a referral card for a consultation with an oral surgeon. 

I know so many people get their wisdom teeth out because they're not really necessary and it prevents future problems... but the same argument could be made for appendixes and it's not like we're routinely removing them just in case. What do you think of automatic wisdom tooth extraction? 

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

As an adult who has her wisdom teeth, take them out! They are very hard to keep clean way back there and unbeknownst to me, as you age your teeth move. I thought that stopped once you got past the growing ages, but I'm 46 and those wisdom teeth are really messing things up now. I'm terrified to get them out now though, I hear it gets harder.

Regina said...

Message to Anonymous above! My husband and I recently got our wisdom teeth removed (30s and 40s) it wasn't bad at all. I asked for ALL the sedatives and don't remember ANYTHING. Husband asked for the LEAST amount of sedation and it was done super quickly. Recovery was boring, but minimally painful. I didn't ever need the heavy stuffed they prescribed.

Kassie said...

Thank you for the shoe goo referral. My kids are hard on shoes, so I will be buying this to fix them rather than feeling the need to buy new shoes.

That poor dog. Way to handle it all like a pro! And quotes you always have on your blog from your teenage daughters crack me up!

And thanks for mentioning Dr. DeMaio last QuickTakes, I will need to check that out with my kids.

Ann-Marie said...

I never had mine out, and they are all in. Not a problem for me at all. I never liked the idea of getting them out, just because. So I didn't. I figured I could always take the 'wait and see' approach.

I did think about your family with all the things in Afghanistan. I remembered you had just studied it.

Also - my Mom is on her trip to Iceland currently. I had sent her the blog post where you outlined Iceland and she really enjoyed it. So, thank you.

MeaganandChris said...

I have all my wisdom teeth and they've never caused any problems. I'm hoping to leave them there forever, as ripping your teeth out of your face sounds like such torture!

Wendy said...

Most of us (parents and kids) have had to have wisdom teeth out. A good oral surgeon should be able to tell you if they will cause problems or not. Our experience has been that if you wait until they hurt, they hurt much more when they take them out (something about the nerves already being irritated). I mean, the recovery is harder, I think we were all unconscious during the procedure. My 2 cents, anyway.