Dentaphobia

I spent the past two days visiting the dentist. Yesterday was a much dreaded cleaning and check-up. And today, I had a small crack fixed. I was thrilled that was all I had wrong. The news hasn't been as good the past 26 times I've gone. ...

Most people I know hate going to the dentist and put it off as long as possible. I have thought about this long and hard, and come to my own conclusion....

I do not dislike the tooth doctor for the needles and drills. Not even the tapered files used to torture one during a root canal. Although I don't enjoy talking with numb lips, when I am finished- I can handle it. Maybe all my years spent at the orthodontist's paid off. Not because my teeth are nice and straight (who knew your teeth move your WHOLE life?!) but because I gained an extreme tolerance to oral torture. Many people I know put off making the appointment. Is it the sounds, smells, and feelings that go along with the visit?

For me, it's none of the above. It is sheer humiliation. Embarrassment. A visit to the DDS is, in my book, far worse than a visit to the OBGYN. The dentist is much more intimate. I have carefully studied eyebrows and pores; dandruff and whiskers; ear hairs and wrinkles. But the darn dentist has an advantage over me: a strategically placed mask. No fair. It covers his mouth and nose. Thus concealing bad breath (thank goodness,) forgotten popcorn kernels, and boogers. When preparing for the dentist, careful thought must be taken to ensure nothing is where it shouldn't be inside my facial cavities. Heaven forbid I should miss something. And that's just the beginning. I have pleaded with my dentist on more than one occasion to just pull the dang things. He refuses, saying I have plenty of 'tooth left'. HOW?! after drilling for three hours, can there be anything left?! It must be a ploy to collect more cash. In attempt to plea my case each visit, I site my impeccable flossing habit. It really is embarrassing that I have had so many stupid cavities. How can my once cavity-free mouth be so filling-ridden? I blame it on the kids.

Daddy's Girl

Emma is in training.



Twice today, she found her way to the freezer with a spoon. She helped herself, first, to 'Brownie Mud Pie' just after 10:00 AM.


And again this afternoon, after changing into her 'princess dress'. Her flavor of choice : 'Take the Cake'.


Her affection for the frozen confection can be attributed to pure genetics. She is learning to love ice cream like her dad, and his dad before.

Not Feeling It

I have decided to give up on scrapbooking altogether (don't worry, grammas, you'll still get your yearly scrapbooks- I need to do that for me, too.) It's just that I have always tried to make it my thing, but it just isn't.

I went digital a couple years back and that was better. But, man, this stuff takes up a ton of room on your hard drive. And I just don't have the creative eye like I'd like to think I do. I mean, I love photography and I take a gazillion pictures every month. In fact, my kids joke that I take pictures of everything. And I do.

So I have decided to let go of the scrapbookers guilt and focus on my pictures and my blog. I really would love to learn how to really use my camera. You know, turn off 'auto' and take some pictures. Real pictures. That is my new goal. Not to try and scrap the 80,000 pictures I have taken, but to take some that are worthy of some frames for our bare walls. And some that are too good not to post here, for all to see. And for the other 79,900...well, I'll take the best of those, and make DVDs put to music for the family to watch.

So that will be my theme for 2009.

'picture it'

A-MAZE-ing Games

A big sigh of relief!

We had pack meeting today.

I am back in cub scouts, and so is my good friend, Mindy. Between figuring out awards and brief training sessions, we pulled it off- even after a last minute cancellation by the person in charge of the gathering activity. Mindy was great! She put together a fun game of cub scout jeopardy.

Tyler is rackin' up the arrow points~ he's up to 7!

Thanks to his AWESOME den leaders. I am so bummed they moved. They are so great, they came back tonight just to see one of them receive his Wolf. Talk about dedication! But the new leaders seem enthusiastic, too. And good things come with change.

LIFE 365

I've been taking pictures every day for Project 365. Documenting my life in pictures- the everyday things.


Here is my first layout. Life....365.....

It's Love

Randy has been really good to me. He always has been. And now, even though I dropped the birthday ball on him, he got me this:



My new Hoover FloorMate. It vacuums, it washes, it dries. It does laundry. OK, so it doesn't do laundry, but a girl can dream, can't she?


I got my first one six years ago. It finally bit the dust. I was in total denial that I needed a new one. But after several months of using a mop to spread the dirt around my floor, I couldn't stand it any longer. How can I live without one? It's love.



True love. This thing Randy is awesome.


I mean, I know he has his own list of stuff he wants. But instead, he gets me things to make my life easier. He always puts me first. Now that's love.

Celebrate Good Times.....Come On!

Now that I got a song stuck in your head, I'll fill you in on what we've been up to....

Saturday night, Randy and I went to a fancy schmancy restaurant for his birthday. The food was delicious, even though I was unsure of half the ingredients the waitress listed.

Sunday was Randy's birthday. We ate french toast with strawberries and whipped cream for dinner (which strangely enough, is different than eating strawberry shortcake for dinner.)

His birthday totally snuck up on me with him being home up until the Monday prior (last week was spent trying desperately to catch up from the holidays.) So I improvised and he had some gifts to open, but I still need to redeem myself sometime...

Among other things, we gave him the Nacho Libre soundtrack. Unless you like your kids climbing the walls (literally) I caution against listening to this after consuming a high sugar dinner, pie and ice cream.

We spent the next two nights (very late nights) making Hannah's birthday present.

The idea came to me over dinner Saturday night. Not a lot of time. Do you see a pattern here? But I am proud to say it was a success! Hailey loved it as much as Hannah did.

The bunk beds come apart to be separate...

I was feeling on top of things yesterday morning as I had all the ingredients for her cake and dinner. I made the cake first thing and set it out to cool. While I hopped in the shower for a quick rinse, Emma realized she was hungry. She ate half of one of the cakes. Luckily I was able to fill in with a lot of frosting. Other than it being a really short cake, you never would have known. I set a cover on it to discourage further nibbling and went on with my day.

We took McDonald's to Hannah for lunch and sang to her with he rest of the lunch room. We had a great time eating with her and her friends (that's a post in it's own...)

As I was finishing an outfit for Hannah's AG doll, Emma decided the McDonald's she ate for lunch wasn't enough. She ate half the frosting off the cake.


We had "noodles with white sauce" for dinner and enjoyed what was left of the cake. After opening presents, we played 'telephone'. Something about this game brings out the best in my children. Things like 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' turn into 'suck it up candy bozos'. A phrase that from here on out will be used when the kids complain about their chores.


A game of red light, green light turned sour when Hailey decided to run the red light. Hannah didn't think that was funny and threw her own little pity party in the middle of her birthday party. Randy, being the push-over he is, gave in to her (after all- it was her birthday) and started a 'movie with popcorn and candy'...at 9:00...on a school night. No wonder the kids like him better.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HANNAH!! WE LOVE YOU!

My Soapbox

This is video is a little long (8 minutes,) but I am passionate about this. The Less-Homeowrk Revolution. I encourage anyone who feels the same way to do something about it.

I don't agree 100% with this clip as it states homework should be no more than 10 minutes per grade (10 minutes for 1st grade, 60 for 6th grade, 120 for 12th grade, etc.) The flaw with that is that what the teacher thinks should take 10 minutes may take your child an hour. We had this problem last year with Tyler. His teacher was not understanding about it. But luckily, his teacher this year is much more open to the idea of scaling back. And then, factor in the number of kids you have. For me, this would total 160 minutes each night. And since the homework usually needs help from a parent, that is almost three hours each night I spend with the kids doing homework. They get home at 3:30, so that means I can begin making dinner at 6:10. After we clean up from dinner, we start the bedtime routine. When does my kid get to be a kid?

This clips also sites the Duke University study that shows homework has no correlation to performance in the elementary school level, and very little at the Jr. High level. By high school, it should max at 2 hours per night. So, according to that, I should not even know what it's like to do homework with my kids. I am sorry to say that I know all too well.

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Little Squirt

Before being a mom, I was warned of the threat of a little baby boy showering me with urine whilst diaper changing. As a mom, I have successfully mastered the open dirty diaper- insert clean diaper within milliseconds routine.


What nobody warned me about was that girls are just as good at squirting you. Even once potty-trained. More than once, have I been generously soaked by a dainty daughter.


The latest, I think takes the cake. We were at Target the other day and Emma told me of her urge to eliminate. And as Murphy's Law would have it, we were at the absolute back of the store. We made our way up to the restroom and found the first available stall.


Now, I was raised by a nurse who instilled in me a fear of public restrooms. Never would I dream of touching a toilet seat, let a lone sitting my behind, or that of my child on one. Straddling or lining the seat with toilet paper are acceptable alternatives. But in the case of a wee one who has not yet mastered the feat, the routine goes something like this: Warn the child that if she touches anything in the bathroom she will need to be decontaminated. Pull down her pants and grab behind her knees. Hover her over the toilet as she does her business. Try not to drop her into the germ infested bowl as you try to maintain balance and keep from leaning your own legs on the john. If she says she needs to go #2, tell her to hold it until you get home or else your back will surely break.


So as I performed this acrobatic routine I have long ago mastered, I failed to take into consideration one thing: my new purse. I recently purchased an amazing Mary Poppins purse that can hold treasures beyond belief (just ask Mindy.) But the one thing this purse lacks is a shoulder strap. Typically as I perform this stunt of toilet hovering, I have my purse slung neatly over my shoulder. But this day, as I lowered my little princess's pants, my purse rested nicely on my wrist. As I lifted her above the toilet, I realized the inevitable. But it was too late. The yellow waste from her bladder was contained no more. And my purse was in the way. As the stream of pee landed on my purse, it shot in fifty directions as if light through a prism. The contents of her bladder showered the stall, the toilet, my purse and my shoes. At least her pants were still dry. I cleaned up the stall and toilet the best I could (it is times like these that make me realize exactly WHY you never touch anything in the bathroom.) I convinced myself it was OK that my purse and shoes were soaked because, after all, urine is sterile (or so I was once told.)

Elated!...?

Hannah: "Did you know that a boy in my class and me are almost elated?"



Me: (confused) "Really? "



Hannah: "Yeah, Cyndi drives his van and since she is our aunt, we are almost elated."

A Bedtime Story by Nathan

So it's a little late, now, but I was having a heck of a time getting this to work. I tried a cople months ago with my little camera. Nope. Not gonna work. So now that we have a new camcorder, I gave it another shot. I amd not good at the digital video stuff yet and I am new to the whole YouTube thing. It turned out to be not great quality, but one of these days, I'll get it right.

A Slight Obsession

Randy got a certain movie for Christmas. It has quickly turned into, quite possibly the favorite around here.

"Ramses is the best!"

The first person to name the movie is the winner. Casey, Hailey- you can't answer this.....

Good for Nothin'

Seriously. These two cats are good for nothin'!

We have suspected some unwelcome guests in our home for a little while now. Casey would complain that the 'rats' were keeping him up at night. 'We don't have rats in our walls," I'd tell him. "There is no way they can run around like that." But Sophie would stand watch in front of the heater vent. Hmmmm....maybe there is something in there. I placed a trap even though I had never seen any trace of a little rodent. And then one night in the quiet of my craft room, I heard it. Yup. Definitely something there. Randy said he'd get on it....

....A couple days later.....

It was a snowy day during Christmas break, and the kids were enjoying the snow outside. Hailey came in for some gloves she had drying on the heater vent from the day prior. I was upstairs and all of a sudden, I heard a, "Mom! Ew ew ew ew ew! Mom! EW! EW! EW! EW! EW! MOOOOM! EEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

I came out of my room to see what was so gross. "Hailey, what's wrong?"

"A mouse!"

"Where?"

"Right there!"

"I don't' see it" Then I saw it. Dead on the rug. My poor daughter was traumatized, huddled in the corner. As Hailey had reached her hand into her glove, she felt something furry. She gave her glove a shake, and out plopped the nasty varmit to the floor. And she was about to vomit.

Being the awesome mom I am, I ran downstairs to rescue her call for Randy. He, being the awesome dad he is, scooped up the rodent into a grocery bag and took it outside to show the boys. I spent the next several minutes washing my hands with Hailey.

All I can figure is the mouse crawled out of the heater vent and into her glove and couldn't get back out, so it suffocated. There were little gnaw holes in the finger of the glove- the one we promptly threw in the garbage.

My poor daughter already checks her Rollerblades every time she puts them on due to a close encounter with an arachnid. And now this. Putting on gloves will never be the same for my sweet Hailey.

But she caught the mouse that my good for nothin' cats couldn't.

New Year's Skirts

So I dropped the ball on Christmas dresses this year (And neighbor gifts. I guess I can't do Christmas cards and gifts in the same year...) But I thought hmmmmm.....I'm on to something. Hailey really doesn't care for the fancy dresses anyway. And since I am so not fancy, I decided we'll do New Skirts for the New Year!

Has anyone tried shopping for girls lately? There is nothing in the stores worth my money. Especially when it comes to Sunday clothes. My solution: make our own.

This is Emma's new skirt. Not that she was in desperate need of a new one...but isn't it cute? I saw the pattern here and have been dying to make one for months. Hailey and I made a trip out to the quilt shop this week and found the perfect fabrics.

Here is Hannah's (OK, so I actually made this for Hailey's birthday last month. But the problem with e-patterns is you have to make sure it prints to scale...otherwise, instead of making a size 10, you'll end up with a size 6. Oops.)

Hailey really does need new skirts and dresses, so here is the one we have finished so far. I'm not done with the matching headband yet.

So now I have caught the bug (Thanks, Mindy!) and I have several more planned. Maybe even some for me!

2009

from our family....to yours.