HELP!

I set my alarm a little earlier this morning so I could get up and call the orthodontist's office just before 7 am, when they open. I got the answering machine and on Mondays they open at 8am. UGH! I went back to bed for a few minutes. I tried calling again at 8, and the receptionist said there was no one in the office today. OH NO!!! Now what?? She said she could call the gal on call, but the one on-call isn't the one I typically see, and figured she might not really know what to do, plus the last time I was in, the doctor thought he might need to do something different because Bubba has been shaved down as small as he can go.

Unfortunately I had several things going on today. I volunteered to chaperone on Gage's class field trip to the Science Center, Emma had her follow-up appointment with the ENT and Gage has a pack meeting tonight and he will be awarded a patch for this past weekend's event. Scott left for work just before 8 and then my mind started racing. How the heck am I going to get through today without Bubba?? I went to the bathroom to try and figure something out. I have never really thought of myself really caring about how I look. I rarely fix my hair because baseball caps and stocking caps cover up bad hair days and I don't wear make-up. However, I am very dependant upon my "Bubba tooth". I couldn't find anything in the bathroom drawers that I thought might work. Then I had an idea. I went to get one of Emma's clear rubber bands to see if I might be able to wrap it around the tooth and then wrap it around the bracket that the tooth broke off of. Didn't work. Another idea popped into my head. I suppose because I have been reading different blogs lately of people I don't know, and one of them is a big scrapbooker and she raved about glue dots. I have glue dots! I went into my scrapbooking room and pulled out my box of glue dots. The package clearly states, "Endless Creativity?" "Endless Uses!" "Bonds Instantly" "Clear" "Super-strength". Well, why not give it a shot? I tried drying my mouth out as much as possible with a clean, dry washcloth (they have a little air gun at the office to do that!). I stuck a glue dot on Bubba, then put him in my mouth and tried to get it to stick to the bracket. It kind of worked, but I thought maybe 2 would work better than 1. So, I added another one. Bubba was in place! I went downstairs and told the kids we needed to get to school or we would be late. I dropped Gage off and then took Emma to the Y. I was so happy this was working! I took Emma into her classroom and one of the other Moms asked how I was doing. When I started to talk, it fell out of place. CRAP!!! I quickly got Emma situated and slipped out trying not to make eye contact with anyone, as I didn't want to talk to anyone without my tried and true friend.

When I got home, I again tried coming up with something that I could use. Gum! Who hasn't, at least one time in their life, used a big wad of bubblegum and shaped it around their teeth when they were little, pretending to have braces? I got out a piece of Trident bubblegum and started chewing away. Once I got it wet and sticky, I put Bubba in place and then pushed the gum up against the back of my front teeth. Hey, I think this might work? At least Trident is sugarless and shouldn't rot my real teeth as I have it plastered to the backs of them. The only problem was, it was pink and you could see it. Of course I have no white gum in the house. I ran over to the gas station a block and a half behind our house to get some peppermint Trident. Do you think I could find a normal pack of Trident gum? Of course not! They only had the chicklet-style "Trident White" gum. I picked up the package and decided that was my only choice. The package says "Proven to Strengthen and Whiten Teeth!" "Whitens teeth and helps prevent stains". I should be good to go. I got a new piece of gum and had Bubba "stuck" in place. I wore it around the house awhile to make sure it wasn't going to be faulty, like the glue dots, and figured I would be strengthening and whitening the backs of my teeth at the same time. I called my Mom and Dad to see if they had any good ideas. Dad didn't think denture glue would work.

When I went to pick Emma up from school, I sat in the car and waited until the last minute so as not to cause myself to get engaged in any conversations. Do you think that worked? Of course not! I did my best to keep Bubba from falling out. After we left there, I went to see Scott at work and ask him if he could tell and to see if he could go with Gage's class to the Science Center (after all, he IS the scientist in the family!) His secretary said she couldn't tell. Scott said he couldn't either, but then it suddenly fell out of place as I was talking and Scott said he would do the field trip for me. THANKS SCOTT! LOVE YA!

Later, we went to the doctor's office for Emma's follow-up appt and I'm not sure if he could tell or not. I thought maybe he was looking at me kind of weird, but then when we got in the car to go home, I looked in the mirror and discovered that it could have been the brown skin from a chili bean stuck in my braces on my bottom front tooth that was causing him to look at my mouth kind of funny? AARGH! That might have been worse than just leaving Bubba out?

I have an appointment at 10:10 am tomorrow to get Bubba reinserted, or to see if they can try something different? I suppose the gum will have to work for tonight's pack meeting. I'll just make sure I get supper brushed out of my braces before we leave!