Dumpster Diving

What is missing in the top picture?  That's right, a mouth full of metal.  G posed for one last shot of his braces before having them removed about 3 weeks ago.  Between a palatal expander and then braces, he's had metal of some kind permanently adhered to his mouth for a year and a half.

His braces came out once his retainer arrived.  They have come a long way since the retainers of my day.  The plate of his is orange with a longhorn painted on it with the words "Hook 'em" in honor of his beloved UT Longhorns.  I thought it was cute, but had no idea how handy a bright orange retainer would come in some day!

Yesterday, I was at the school all day doing Hearing screenings on all the kids.  I actually enjoy this since it gives me a chance to see lots of kids I know from years of school stuff.  The best is when I had a 3rd grade class with boys that play football with N.  A couple of them were goofing off and in the middle of doing a child's hearing exam, I turned to them and told them they better knock it off or they would do "up downs" for me.  They got big eyes and stopped immediately.  A couple seconds later, I heard one of them whisper to an unknown friend, "It's ok, we know her".  As if to reassure the other children that I'm not a raving lunatic with an audiometer that's going to force small children into torturous physical drills for talking.

Anyways, the day was over and I was leaving when the secretary motioned me over to tell me that G was in the cafeteria because he had thrown away his retainer.  Let me just say, I knew this day would come.  I asked about replacement fees before we even left the orthodontist because I knew it would be misplaced.  I just thought MAYBE we'd make it a month.....at least!

I went and grabbed G and we went dumpster diving.  I was sweet enough to give him latex gloves and my assistance.  We dug through 4 or 5 large trash bags of 4th grade lunch leftovers.  It was disgusting........but true to 4th grade form, not too much uneaten food in there!  I had just prayed and asked God to help us find the retainer when G shouted, "I got it!!".  I could NOT believe it!  We went straight to the nurse's office for some serious disinfecting before it resumed its job of keeping many dollar's worth of orthodontic work in place.  I wonder how long it will be before I go digging through trash again???