More tooth!!

Man is on CQ recovery again today, so he's sleeping. I put Pebbles down for a nap and then ran to Target for a couple of things, and since the Dentist is literally right next door, I took Princess in for a quick check to see if her other tooth needed to come out. Apparently the reason the first tooth came in so far behind is that there simply wasn't any room for it. So, the dentist went ahead and pulled the second one in an attempt to give the second adult tooth some space to come in straight.

I was really worried about this, which is why I ran to do it while I could leave Pebbles at home. I told her that when I was a kid I had a couple of teeth pulled for the same reason, and they had to give me two tiny pokes in my mouth to numb me up so I couldn't feel it at all when it came time to pull.

However, this child also went absolutely bonkers over her immunizations but a couple months ago and I had no idea how she'd take the idea of getting one in the mouth.

Thankfully, this dentist had some sort of topical numbing agent that went on with a qtip and acted very quickly. From the time he put it on to the time Princess came out with a fat wad of gauze in her mouth was less than 5 minutes. No screaming, no hysteria, no thrashing, no getting every available nurse in the building to hold her down, not even a single tear. She even had her tooth in a tiny padded box to take home.

I can't even put into words how relieved I was that this one went so well.

Now she's having a good time trying to talk without opening or otherwise moving her mouth and getting all pouty when I tell her to answer yes or no questions.

It's so ironic that we spend months and months concerned and irritated with those little teeth coming in, only to fuss and bother over them coming out.

::sigh:: Her baby teeth were so nice and evenly spaced. Now we enter awkward, overly large tooth phase.

The dentist showed me her xrays from last time vs. an xray today. I looked at the one of her uppers and exclaimed :

A: Are those her adult teeth?? [each adult tooth looked to be wider than two baby teeth together]
D: Yes. [looks calm and confused over my shock]
A: But they're HUGE!
D: [examines xray for just a second] Each tooth is from here to here, not here to here.
A: Ah, haha, so less than half as wide as they appear to the untrained eye.
D: Mmmyez.
A: I'll be in the waiting room. [ducks and runs]

::sigh::

How to ruin a double batch of funeral potatoes in one easy step

Too much salt.

The end.

Ok, ok, you know me, I'll elaborate.

I don't have a food processor any more, so I got to grate 4 pounds of potatoes and one pound of cheese by hand. I didn't measure the garlic salt, and there was already a can of cream of crap in there to boot.

How do you fix 4 pounds of funeral potatoes? Besides adding 6 pounds of unflavored potatoes?

I put a large dollop in a small dish for the toaster oven as a side for dinner since Man is gone, which means I can make about half what I normally cook. Then the rest went into two disposable 8x8" dishes for the freezer.

I ended up throwing some potato pearls together instead, which made my meatloaf and corn taste like they were participating in a bad tv dinner nightmare.

Ribbon pouches, or I LOVE RIBBONS!!

I love playing with ribbons. Making these means I get to buy and play with ribbons. Woohoo!!

A scale photo:

Yes, I'm still fascinated by these things. Last night I made... well, almost 100 in about 45 mins. With ribbon from Costco, the cost of each one of them is less than 4 cents, not including thread and ribbon to tie them, or stuff to fill them.

Man thinks I'm nesting. I think I just like the ribbon, advent, and the excuse to get the sewing machine out in the evening.

2.5" wide ribbon, wire left in to shape the top. 10.5" long, folded in half, edges sewn up. Just large enough for a small treat like a sticker, a couple of quarters for those machines at the PX or a single soda, a coupon for picking dinner one night that week, a small handful of M&M's, etc. I'll have to post my complete advent bag list once I get it all worked out.

General Conference

For those who aren't extremely familiar with all of the meetings we have in my church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) we have a twice-yearly meeting called General Conference that is broadcast to every meeting house that equiped to receive satelite. It's also available over the internet both in audio and audio/video.

Since the last conference in April, a leader in our church and a dear, wonderful man has passed away. President James E. Faust was in the First Presidency of the church. His was a voice I've heard at conference my whole life. He has always been so sweetly candid, so kind and insightful and I've enjoyed his talks and the spirit he brings to conference ever since I was old enough to appreciate such things.

Yesterday President Henry B. Eyring was sustained to take the place of the late Pres. Faust. When I heard that I literally jumped up (which is saying a lot for this pregnant lady) and I had such joy in my heart. I love Pres Eyring tremendously as well. His was the first voice my rebellious teenage heart learned to love in conference, and his was the first testimony from the Brethren that allowed me to appreciate the special witness offered by the prophet and apostles.

Here is a link to a video press conference that was held yesterday after the session during which he was sustained, along with Elder Cook. It starts off a little awkward but he had some really touching things to say about his testimony and Pres Faust.

First sick day... almost

Princess woke up yesterday with a deep cough that sounded really rather horrible. I asked her if she wanted to stay home sick since it was obvious to me that she wasn't faking the cough. She said yes, so I called her in.

By 8:30, she was chasing her brother around the house and into the font yard. I told her that if she was feeling well enough to do that, then she was well enough to clean her room. And clean it well.

So the kids and I dug into room cleaning and by the time we got all of the floors swept at the very end, I was telling Princess that since she did so well with her room that we should go clean the living room as well. She said that she'd rather go to school. Ok, I said, good choice. We got there in time for snack and four more hours of school.

Man said that his mom used to make him clean when he was home sick from school... now I'm seeing why that could have happened every now and then. ;)

First tooth loss!!

Princess lost her first tooth. Finally! The one coming in under it is already peeking out quite a bit but came in too far behind to effectively push out the baby tooth. You can see the new tooth in the picture. The way it came out was she was trying to open a carton of ice cream with her teeth. lol I remember mine... I lost it to a bite of melted marshmallows. Funny how sweets really will make you lose teeth.

Honeymoon

On the way back from picking Princess up, Tag whined that when he got home he wanted a honeymoon.

Um, eh? I catiously asked him what he thought a honeymooon was.

T: You know, cereal.

A: Ah, hahaha, you mean honeycomb?

T: Yeah.

A: That's a relief.

T: Why?

A: Erm, because honeycomb has less sugar than Captain Crunch.

T: Oh, ok.

I dread the day when such simple explanations just won't cut it.

Allowance

So the kids started getting an allowance last month. Perhaps we should have started them off with cash so they'd have to count coins, etc, but this being the age of technology and allowing for the fact that our bank only has one physical location nationwide, we decided to go ahead and get them prepaid debit cards.

USAA prepaid cards are great. They're totally free with no fees. They also come with a lot of literature that teaches parents how to teach their kids about money. There is a minimum transfer amount, but you can also set up automatic payments so their accounts refresh without me having to worry about it.

We got ours in the mail the other day, I activated them this morning, and Tag carefully considered his first purchase. No, really. He took 24 hours to think it over, was very calm and focused, and he took it well when I explained to him that there was no price tag so we'd have to go find out how much it costs before we just try to buy it. In the past, when relatives send money for gift giving occasions, I will usually either buy the kids something and tell them who it's from, or have them come to the store pick it out and make the purchase myself.

We were about to embark into new areas of autonomy. The air was thick with Tag's resolve to make this step as soon as may be.

We got ready to go to the PX and I don't think he's ever gotten dressed so quickly or willingly in his whole life. He was so intense when we got into the store, knowing the goal was in sight. I wasn't particularly hopeful because what he wanted was a toy fire truck complete with sounds, flashing lights, little fireman, a ladder, and some small accessories. Oh, well, we have to learn about disappointment at some point. May as well start young.

He asked the cashier in his clear, strong voice "can you tell me how much money this costs?"

She scanned it and said "4, 9, 9."

I said, "4, 9, 9? As in, $5?"

Her reply: "Yes, $5."

Tag didn't look at me, so intent was he on this enchanted moment. I helped him swipe HIS card, enter HIS pin, and he got to get HIS receipt and carry HIS bag out to the car.

"Mom, I don't want to open my special toy outside. Can we go in quickly?" He was so calm, like continental drift, but he spoke with all of the inevitability of the same.

We got inside and I headed for the camera. "Mom, can you please bring me the scissors?" Laughing, I complied and then plunked myself down to watch him unwrap his very first, all by himself purchase.

His every cut was meticulous in both planning and execution until Pebbles tried to come over and help him. After that the calm sort of went the way of all the earth and the usual level of noise and attempted interposition of wills resumed, like the deep roll before a thunderclap.

Myyyyyyy, preshhhh-usssssss.

Let's Say Thanks

Cute campaign from Xerox to send cards to deployed troops. All branches are included in this (and that's the way it oughta be) and it takes just half a minute to send off a card. It's free, no strings attached, they don't even want your contact info.

http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1280.html

Weekend

We got to visit Grandma, Aunt R and Uncle A this past weekend. It's weird to think of grandma moving to Mexico but she seems really happy with the decision. Apparently a lot of American retirees go there to make the social security check stretch to manageble means. It bothers me a bit that all of that money isn't coming back into our economy, but if they could stay here comfortably, I'm sure they would. That is neither here nor there though.

Not much to report except that I've figured out that my prenatal pills give me restless leg syndrome and insomnia. ::sigh:: They are now morning pills and I look forward to a good night's rest tonight.

Who remembers The Jungle Book? It's been released again and my PX had it for $14, tax free. woohoo!! Compare that to Costco (though theirs was the platinum edition, which meant it came with weird little pins) at $24 and I'd say we got a good deal. I just love all of the songs in this movie, especially the one the monkey sings, and the one the bear sings, and the one the snake sings. It's fun to watch it as an adult and see how things look so different now, yet exactly the same.

Where do the days go? We've settled into a sort of weekly routine as far as picking up, dropping off, and naps for the younger two, but that routine means that there is no time for errands at all unless we seriously postpone Pebbles' nap. It makes the days so much longer but shorter to have this sort of routine. Funny how that works.