RAM trip

Over the weekend, Travis was able to volunteer at a free clinic in Bristol, Tennessee. The organization that puts it on is called RAM, Remote Access Medical. I guess it's a massive undertaking that they go all around the country with. He left Friday afternoon, driving 10 hours with a friend and getting there around 2am. He worked all day Saturday and also Sunday morning before heading home.

It was all done within the Bristol Motor Speedway stadium.

 

I was amazed at these pictures! All along I had just imagined him inside a small building, working with a couple dozen other dentists. In fact, there were canopies filling the stadium where you could meet with doctors, optometrists, dentists or pharmacists. There was a hygienist school there doing cleanings, so he and the other students mostly did extractions with a few fillings. On Saturday morning alone he said he pulled around 60 teeth! He told me he pulled all the teeth in one girls mouth and I was mortified! I asked if there wasn't anything else he could have done for her. But then he clarified... they weren't even really teeth. The crowns were completely gone and she only had black nubs left. Once again, the mortification! How does that happen??!! Meth. Meth does that. And she was maybe a few years older than us. It made me so sad. But that was the story of many of the patients he saw. I'm so glad he was able to go and have this experience! It was humbling to hear about all the people that donated time, money and effort to make it happen. It also made me grateful for a mom that insisted on dental cleanings every 6 months!!

Here's Trav. Hope HIPPA doesn't come after me!!

I wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of him being gone all weekend, but it worked out just fine. (I even slept without the TV on for the first time! I know. I'm growing up.) 

On Saturday it was ward temple day, and since the only other family going had kids too, we were able to do the babysitting swap. I was glad I could do one last session in the Palmyra temple! 

It also meant one more time at Marks!!! 

We ate it picnic style on the grass down from the Smith Family Farm with the Sacred Grove in the distance. How cool is that? It really has been so amazing living near the church history sites. 

Final blessing of the day? Our {broken} car that still runs, didn't break down on me! It really feels likes it's on its last leg. I could just picture me on the side of the 90 with two kids in car seats, a husband hundreds of miles away and the extent of my car repair skills being "checking the oil".

My free nights were spent preparing my last Sunday School lesson. Bitter sweet. I spend so much time on my lessons that I can't help but be a little excited to have so many more free nights coming my way! However, in all honesty, I don't dig into the scriptures normally, the way I do when I'm preparing a lesson. So in that way, it's nice to have scripture study be my "job". And I've certainly learned so much! For example, my last lesson was on the Allegory of the Olive Tree... Jacob 5. Normal reaction to that chapter: Yawn. I love that chapter now! It was so interesting to study and really teaches so many important lessons that go way beyond just the scattering and gathering of Israel. This calling has been a huge testimony builder for me. The gospel is amazing! And I'm always so grateful for when the Spirit is in my lesson. That is the true teacher!

Well, Rachel was so great to watch Weston for me while I was teaching and she even took a few pictures of him with her phone. She is the Primary secretary so he got to hang out and enjoy his first sharing and singing time! She said he was enthralled and never lost eye contact with the conductor. Just loving the music! So sweet! And such a handsome little guy :)