oooh shiny: An Abigail Update

Well first and foremost, Abigail got her braces on last week! (edit: this is another post I've had sitting in my drafts box for over a month now, I don't even know why I never got it posted. But here it is. I'll catch up eventually if it kills me.)

Now she has a pretty shiny smile! hehe. We've known she's had a crossbite since she was about 3 and we first saw an orthodontist when she was about 8 or so, so we've known for quite awhile that this day would come eventually. Still kind of a shock though to set up the huge chunk of a payment plan for it. Yikes.

Here she is before we went in for her appt:



And here she is after: I was going to take pictures of her during the whole process, but they had her mouth all stretched out with these plastic clamps and things and I think she would have killed me. So there's that.


Other than that, she got an Honorable Mention for her science fair project recently. We switched her violin teacher and she is making great progress there. And she toured the middle school and registered for her classes for next year! It is just so crazy that she's going to be in middle school. The middle school here is usually grades 7-9, but it is so overcrowded right now, they have the 9th graders at the high school. I've never understood why the 9th grade is part of junior high or middle school here anyway, since it is still part of your high school transcript and all of that. But whatever. It was pretty exciting for Abigail to choose all of her electives (orchestra, art, drama, creative writing etc) and look forward to lockers, and a school cafeteria, and not wearing school uniforms anymore! So much to look forward to! I am a little nervous for her since she's going from a small charter school where there are only 50 6th graders, to a middle school with 800 7th graders. It will be a big transition for her and I only hope it will be good for her in all possible ways.

Also coming up is her 12th birthday, which is very big in our church because at 12 the youth become part of the Young Women's or Young Men's youth organizations. They go to a different class for Sunday School and they have weekly activities during the evening. And she'll go to a week long girl's camp this summer! It is such a transformative time and I remember it so vividly. I just can't believe she is that old (well, almost).

And now, finishing up this post a month later, her birthday is about a week away. Zac has started sort of freaking out and was trying to talk to me today about how to pay for her college. Let me just say, I am not ready to talk about that one yet (not to mention how much finances in general stress me out and make my head spin in circles). Anyway, it's all good. Just kind of crazy. :)