Smiles For Kids Blog

Originally Posted: January 13, 2009 - By: Dr. Lindhorst
 
Looks like I do best with summaries of each year! Well… Happy 2009! Hope that the holiday season was great for everyone! As always we enjoyed seeing all the kids during the holidays. We love our college and high school students showing up during the holidays to tell their stories…

We have had a busy 2008-both in the practice and at home! At Smiles for Kids we are working on making our office better and better for you every day! We have done a big marketing project this year with Carrie taking a leading role in making it happen. She is the smiley blond girl that welcomes you in the office-so please tell her she is doing a grand job!

We also finally got digital X-rays! We have had the panoramic machine for a while (the one that goes around your head to tell you what your bone looks like, if you have wisdom teeth etc), but we finally installed a regular cavity detecting x-ray machine as well. It is so great for our patients since we can largely decrease the radiation for each x-ray taken, we can now share the records with other specialists, and we can show the parents and patients blown up pictures that easily let them understand cavities and problems. We are very, very excited about this new equipment in our office.

Seattle Study Club, my monthly dental meeting, has proven very valuable. Since it incorporates dentists of all specialties, it is great for learning what is going on in dentistry outside of pediatrics. We discuss many comprehensive dental problems and talk about practice management. I feel so privileged to be part of such a great group!

I also attend monthly meetings with the pediatricians in Memorial City Medical Center. What an invaluable group! We discuss many topics in children’s health such as new flu vaccinations, obesity, over-prescribing of medications, new findings in asthma research, and others. I get to share with pediatricians how dental health incorporates into a patient’s overall well being.
Now for all the fun we’ve had as a team… In March Smiles for Kids celebrated 2 years with a fun bowling party put on by Yvette. It was great to have all the spouses and the kids of the employees come play with us.

In April we had Stefanie’s baby shower and soon after that, in May Stefanie had her 2nd baby girl-Kaycee. She is completely adorable, smiley and fun. And by now she is a BIG girl of 7 months… At the end of the summer we celebrated with a BBQ at Malgosia’s house. Everyone came together for some pool time, good food and hanging out. We also celebrated Stef coming back to work after a 3 month maternity leave. And in October we had a Girls Day Out at the Houstonian hotel Spa. What a fun treat for everyone to enjoy! At the end of the afternoon we basked in the jacuzzi telling stories and laughing. And then… Martina’s daughter turned 15 and we all went to the fabulous Quinceañera. For those of you that have never been… by all means-GO!!! We partied all night and had a great time! Before we knew it… Christmas time came along and we had a fun celebration for our team at the Rainbow Lodge.

So that’s just the life of the practice! And it has not been any quieter on the home front! My boys are growing and growing like little weeds! Christoph just turned 4 and had a fabulous party at Pump It Up! Luki is 15 months now and the sweetest little man ever. We made sure that they are not bored this year! We took them on several trips. In February we drove all around Texas with some friends from Europe. It was really neat to show them how fabulous Texas is! In May we went to Washington DC for a pediatric dental conference and showed the boys a bit of US history. Christoph’s favorite was the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, Luki was just content sleeping in the stroller. In July we traveled all around southern California starting in LA, going down to San Clemente, then Legoland, San Diego and ending up back in Big Bear for the 4th of July fireworks!

I saw two of my dear pediatric dental friends and it was good to talk about the “old times” of residency and the “new times” of building their offices and having beautiful kids. So if any of you are moving to southern CA… I do know some GREAT dentists to recommend!!! And barely 2 months later had we taken the boys on another plane ride, this time to Poland. Luckily for us… we just happened to avoid IKE’s visit to Houston. I hope that all of you have recovered from it already and resumed “normal” life. We enjoyed Poland a lot although it was very cold and very rainy… Not really my favorite weather, but friends and family made up for the nasty cold. I guess we are not able to sit still because just 2 months later again… we went to London for Thanksgiving to visit friends of ours! The fact that my boys still want to live with me is shocking ?, but they are not complaining! My little troopers and world travelers!

Now my husband, my dad and I are getting ready for the Houston ½ Marathon next weekend. It is exciting as always and has become a family tradition. We are starting to think about MS-150 upcoming in April too! This year we are riding on the NASA team-Team Mission Control. Both Bill and I got new bikes we are very excited about (used ones… but still new to us). Wish us luck!!! And hope to see some of you on the road or in La Grange.

I hope this brings you back to date on all the fun things that Smiles for Kids and my family has been doing. I am looking forward to your visits every few months! See you soon!!!