Mosaic

Kris & Pat are about to celebrate their 3rd Anniversary!

I feel like it crept up on me, for a while it was summer and fall just felt so far away, then the other day it hit me, August is almost OVER!  When did that happen???

The days are getting cooler {thankfully}one day I might get to wear a sweater in the morning, the nights are slowly getting darker sooner.  Leaves will begin to fall on their own, {not because a hurricane wripped them off}  Our yard looks like someone sprinkled debris confetti all over it.

Hubby turned 29 today, one year till officially being an Old Man :)

I'll be turning 27 tomorrow, no big deal, I actually look forward to my 30's

So back to my original train of thought, 

knowing that K&P were married on Labor Day weekend, doesn't help in figuring out what day their Anniversary falls on.  In order to find out the number of years and day my math equation is as follows...

What day was I married on?  = Sep 27

Sep 27 minus exactly 3 weeks = Sep 6

How many years will I be married? = 8

They were married 5 years after us so...

8-5= 3

So thus I have fathomed that on September 6 it will be their 3rd Anniversary!

That took a lot of effort.

The next step...what to get them??

The original thought, months ago was to get them a table and chair set for their patio.

But I missed out on a great deal and have found 0 in every store I check.

Then what?

Easy, go to World Market, they love that store.

Ok, now that I'm at World Market?  What do I get them?

I found nothing!

Ok, how about Pier 1?

Nothing!

Home Goods?

Nothing!

Oh great, well, how about I make something?

Like a mosaic?!?

Hand made is cool right?

So off to Michaels I rushed and after searching and searching, could not find a single print of my favorite Van Gogh painting...Cafe Terrace.  I did find Starry Night, my second Fave but I wanted what I wanted so I decided to do one more desperate search before giving up.

Much to my happiness, I then found 3 prints!!

Then I had to find a frame....

Poor KennaKat, it was a long day for her, but she was a good trooper!

After gathering all needed supplies, I rushed home and started my project, very excited that I found the print that I wanted!

I made it on Friday and rushed to finish it because I knew we'd be seeing them on Saturday and then we could surprise them before their official Anniversary.

After finishing it, I fell in love, I think it's my favorite mosaic so far.  Partly because it's my favorite all time painting, and partly because it's a rainbow.

NOT the intended color spectrum, but it just happened, and I love rainbows.

I thought about greedily keeping it for myself...more than once.

But no, giving is better than coveting something you made for someone else, so giving is what I did...

I hope they love it, if not, returns are accepted, 

It would look fabulous against my chocolate brown walls :)

{Only complaint is that I used a new brand of spray sealer and it sucked!  So one day I will go over and spray with a brand that I like and make it look a little better...one day}

One day I would like to feel completely confident about giving something hand made.

I always worry, Will they like it?  Does it look bad?  Will it look good in their house?

I guess that's just how it goes, in the new system, I can have confidence, until then, I'll just stick with butterflies in my stomach and a queasy feeling.

Book #2 Frog's Dream

Ethylwolfe plans on writing a total of three books for his 'Frog' series.

Here is book number two, 

Frog's Dream

Frog's Dream
Written by Ethylwolfe

Frog was catching a fly and he saw a spaceship.

The alien was nice and they made friends.

They played hide and seek.

Frog wakes up, he likes his dream.

I love everything about his stories!

The facial expressions, the Alien waving his hand, the frog with his head down while counting, the bubble and the stars behind it to show that it's a dream at night time.

Everything!

I can't wait to see what he writes for the last book in his trilogy.

We Have a Novelist in the family!!

OK, so maybe saying "novelist" is a bit of an exaggeration, but out of the blue on Wednesday, shortly before bed time (the day he turned 6), Ethylwolfe came running into the living room, very excited, and said "I have an idea for a book, please help me write it!"  So right then and there, he drew the cover of his first book.  He told me the idea of the book, and it was so funny.  Aside from helping come up with the title, and sounding out a few words, this book is his, I love it and am so proud of him for wanting to do this without encouragement from anyone else.  We finished it after school on Thursday and he shared it with his class on Friday.  His teacher was so excited and told him Thank You because after that, everyone in the class wanted to write their own books.

So here is it, "Frog's Home" written and Illustrated by Ethylwolfe

Frog's Home
Written and Illustrated
By Ethylwolfe

Frog jumps in a rabbits hole.

Frog climbs into a bird's nest.

Frog jumps into his log.

So there it is, we hope you enjoyed it.

Saturday, he wrote book number 2.

He's bringing that in on Monday to share with the class.

It's called "Frog's Dream" also very cute!

Have a lovely Sunday!

a break from the computer

It has been over a week since my last blog and it was not on purpose.

In fact, a lot of cool things happened that I wanted to blog about.

Like Kris's sister Kelly married Seth and I was there to see it and help out.  It was beautiful.  I didn't stick around long because I had to race home to meet the hubster...

He and I went to see Archers of Loaf perform at the Cradle!!!  

I was completely exhausted and they didn't come on stage until after 11, we got there when the doors opened to get seats, and yes, it's official we are old, especially because at the cradle they don't have "seats" but rather a bench that stretches along one wall and partly on another.  The show didn't start for over an hour and we sat there, laying claim to our seats.  I'm days away from turning 27 and I'm declaring myself an old lady.  Ok, I've said that for years, so I guess I'll call myself a seasoned old person now.  But old as I may be, the show was amazing, I loved it, I stood on the bleachers belting out every song, jumping up and down and swaying back and forth.  I'm so glad they did the reunion tour as I was 12 when the group broke up and never saw them live. (Did see Eric Bachman once with Crooked Fingers, he's awesome).  It was pretty hilarious seeing them perform, as they are all around 50, they were exhausted after the second song, but they rocked it and it was awesome!  The crowd varied in age from old die hard fans to the younger, second hand fans.  They did 2 encores  it was great!

Saturday was the port and poetry party, we had a BLAST, lots of laughs, lots of wonderful poems, lots of lovely ladies.

Then the week was filled with much running around.

Highlights are:

KennaKat finally got her Rapunzel doll...

We spent the last Tuesday at the pool with the new Kindergartners before they started school on Thursday and Friday... 

There was an earthquake, we didn't feel it because we were at the pool and the kids were running around on the deck so much that we couldn't tell one shake from another.  I do know that my stomach got butterflies in it and chills ran through my whole body, but I didn't know why until I heard later what happened.  It woke B up from his nap...that never happens ;)

Ehtylwolfe turned ~6~ years old!  I know, I know, 6 years old!!!  He did a count down all month and was so happy when it came.  I gave him a house key because he's now old enough to have that responsibility.  He was thrilled!

I didn't get to blog about any of that because the computer crashed.  I call it my fault, but really, I don't know what happened.  Hubster and I were wrestling and teasing each other while he was trying to finish a game of solitaire when I got out of his grasp, pushed the power button on the computer and ran out of the room while celebrating my triumph.  It took a long time for it to turn off, later when hubster tried to turn it back on, it had crashed.  So technically, I am the one that pushed the button, but that's all I did, pushed a button.  Something else was wrong with it but we aren't sure what.

The hubster has spent a lot of time trying to repair it.  The pictures were deleted.  He spent most of his time trying to get them back.  Most of them were recovered, so I wont whine, but it is sad that some will be lost forever.  Then yesterday, it crashed again, the entire thing was wiped.  Thankfully, my pictures were transferred to the portable hard drive before that happened.

Hurricane Irene is here, I always get really excited about big powerful storms.  It rained all night and was windy, I woke up this morning, eager to find out what the damage was.  Lots of branches are down and a small tree fell in our back yard.  No biggie.  She's still in the state though.  A few more hours left and lots of wind, so who knows.  The power is out all over town.  That hasn't happened here yet.  Hopefully it wont, I hate when the power goes out and I'm in desperate need of a shower.

We're about to go to a party for a friend who is entering her 20th year of full time service to Jehovah!  It's special to me because aside from her always going on camping trips with our family and being a very fun person, she stayed with us at our house during pioneer school!  I remember having to be quiet when she and the other girl were there.  Bringing dinner and snacks in to them while they were studying.  Having my brother sleep in my room...ok, so not all memories were fond ones.  I'm so proud of her and to say I know her!  I'm looking forward to tonight.

I also made another mosaic, I can't wait to show it, but I have to give it away before I post pictures.

Tomorrow, a brother from Brooklyn Bethel is coming to give a talk at our hall...I hope they didn't cancel because of the hurricane.  He's in a Portuguese congregation so I'm anxious to meet him and see how many of our friends from Bethel he knows. 

Organic kick

This week, I have made a conscious decision to move over to the Organic side.

I know it's a more expensive move, but food and all the horror stories behind it, has really been giving me the creeps lately.  I've been buying more organic fruits and veggies for a while but it's time to be more aware of what my family is putting into their mouths...reading the fine print on labels, deciphering all of the codes, knowing the difference in the vast array of choices, etc etc etc.

My free time has been spent googling away tons of questions and reading what others have put out there, some from personal experience others from facts.  Also searching out local farmers that I can purchase from.

Monday, I stopped by whole foods for a few things we were out of.  $20 later, I came out with 4 apples, 1 head of lettuce, 1 cucumber, 8oz heavy cream, 12 eggs. OUCH!

The biggest blows about needing organic were for milk, lettuce, potatoes, and apples.  This families staples.

The other day, I was so creeped out, I went to the fridge to purge it of it's hormone and pesticide filled self and realized that many of the things that I've been buying from costco are already organic, hooray! Because 5ibs of organic carrots costs me $3 there but 1 carrot from Whole Foods was almost $2.  Aside from organic produce, they also have a nice array of organic meats that I plan on picking up on my next trip.

To add to the list of freaky stuff, I learned that half the organic stuff you buy is no better than the regular stuff because it has been zapped of all its goodies.  Also, buying something oversees is sketchy because their "organic" code is less strict than ours.

And then there are the chickens...don't get me started on the chickens and their eggs.  You can't just buy cage free, or hormone free, oh no, your best bet is to go to a farm, observe that chickens are walking around eating grass AND bugs and that the grass is pesticide free, the water has not been treated, ask a dozen questions, then if all is up to par, have them kill it for you right then and there.  Oh and take some eggs with you too because you can spend $7 at a grocery store and still not be getting that part right.  

{Hopefully some of my dear, sweet, kind and generous friends who own their own chickens may be willing to let me purchase eggs from their girls.}

Then there is the milk problem.  I wont even admit to how many hours were spent yesterday researching milk!  Grassfed, Organic, Raw or atleast low-temp pasteurized, unhomogenized vs. homogenized, rBST, rBGH, UHT...it's going to take me 20 minutes to read one label!  And no, you can't just go buy regular organic because they pasteurize it at such high temps it kills all the good stuff, so then what's the point?  I wish raw milk wasn't illegal to sell, because out of all the research that I've done, everyone that drinks it, loves it, and it doesn't have all the crap in it that everything else does, plus they quickly saw the health benefits and lost weight.  I'm currently emailing farmers with cows and bribing them to let me buy some.  I did see that HighPoint has a farm that sells raw milk, but that's a long drive, so we'll see if that rumor is true.  If I do get hooked up with some, I'll be making my own butter, maybe one day yogurt and cheese :)  I should just buy my own cow...

Next spring, I plan to start my own raised garden and sooner or later get my own chickens and guineas...probably later on that last part...

Any tips and tricks that you use?  I wish the farmers market was open for longer hours, and that we had more farms in the area.  I heard you can order form Carolina grown, but that seems pricey.  Any other ideas?

Brand Snobbery

Take a look at this picture.

Do you notice any difference in these cars?

You will be surprised to learn that the answer is yes!

To my 5 year old son, there is, a big one!

{This goes beyond make, color, and style}

You see, though they are both made out of die cast metal and plastic bits, and though they can both be found in almost any store, for $1 at that, the difference is HUGE.

One is Matchbox and the other is Hotwheels.

Which is the superior product to my 5 year old?

Hotwheels takes the cake!

{I think that black car is way cooler, IMHO}

This brand snobbery happened upon us a few months ago.

Ethylwolfe experienced the sheer pleasure of receiving a cereal box toy.

His first one!  He couldn't fathom how it was possible to receive toys from cereal.  Why is it in there?  Will  I get a toy every time I pour a bowl of cereal?  Does every cereal box come with toys?  The questions went on and on and I could not wait for that particular brand of cereal to stop putting those toys in their boxes.

His prize that started the obsession was a blue, cheap, plastic car that came with Hotwheels stickers.

He was fascinated that there were flames, and I also happened to sing the Hotwheels theme song every time I saw it or the cereal box...I'm sure that didn't encourage him one bit.

"Hotwheels leads the way!"

{Yell that out in a very gnarly, slightly manly, 80's heavy metal voice, 

air guitar it if you're in the moment}

So it began.

Ethylwolfe emptied out his large galvanized metal pail of cars and separated them all.

There were 3 separate categories:

1.) Pixar Cars toy replicas

2.) Hotwheels

3.) Matchbox and no names

I'll leave the Pixar cars out of this discussion because they aren't in competition with the other cars.  They are cool all on their own, and are played with in an entirely different way.

{Oh and have you seen, Hotwheels came out with their own Toy Story cars...I guess I know what I'll be buying in the coming months...}

 After his class distinction, Ethylwolfe was very upset to discover that his Hotwheels pile was minuscule compared to his matchbox pile.

I think he had maybe 4 Hotwheels at the time.

And I didn't even buy them, Aunt Eitak mailed them to him over a year ago...

{I know, I know, I let him down, how could he have so many matchbox and so little Hotwheels?  I guess I thought Matchbox was the better brand, I don't know how I let the ball drop on this...}

 His collection has grown to 11 and he loves them.

What can I say, spend a buck and make a kid very happy and watch them run off and spend hours playing with their toys again.

Every day he plays with them and not so much with the "others".  

I gave him his cool, retired, 'Cars' lunch tin that P&K got him last year for starting Kindergarten, to store them in.

{I know what you're thinking "why not put the 'Cars' cars in there instead of the Hotwheels?"  Simple...they don't fit.}  He was very excited when I told him he could store them separately in the tin.

Who knew that such a similar product could be so different?

A while ago, he asked if he could get a Hotwheels race track.

The other week, he and I started up a new daily routine of practicing reading and writing in a different way.  I've seen an incredible difference in just 8 days.

So I told him, after he does his work for 30 days, I'll buy him a Hotwheels wall mounted track!

He's thrilled, to say the least.

{So am I, that track is AWESOME!}

{Oh, and he's motivated, that's always a plus!}

How do we get to be this way anyways?  We all have our particular brands that we prefer over others.  Clothing, food, cleaning supplies, diapers, etc.  Sometimes it's a superior brand, but is it always?  I know that when we first started shopping at Costco it was hard to buy the "Kirkland Signature" brand over others, even though my husband assured me it was either the same brand and Costco had the company print their logo on it, or it was better...or my money back.  Can't argue with that, but sometimes it's still hard.

Why is that?

What are your favorite brands?

If I only had a name...

This post is about KennaKat's beloved animals.

When KennaKat was younger, she loved her animals but her ability to name them amounted to calling them "baby" or if it was an animal it would be called by what it was...a bear would be named "bear" etc.  

Then she moved to naming her baby dolls after friends and people she knew.  Her babies would be named after the most current new born and the "older" looking dolls were named after older friends.

Then one day a year or so ago, she branched out even farther and started coming up with the silliest names for her animals and toys.

Case in Point

Reference photo below:

Moving left to right we have: Brewster, Joey, Milky, Ting-Tong, and Charming
That little colorful plastic guy in front is named Joda-Pita

Her brother is also good at naming his toys.  Though he began just the same, naming all cat like animals after our 2 cats Shakespeare and Marlow.  But one day he grew and started coming up with random names on his own.  Like his snakes...Henry, Charlie, Monster Face to name a few.

I have been determined to never name a toy for my kids but rather encourage and accept whatever they come up with as their name.  I try to remember them all, but sometimes I get them mixed up and I get a half confused look and a "huh?"  Ahh well, such is life :)

The once or twice that I tried to suggest a list of names, I got shot down.  I'm glad because their names are hilarious and far better than anything that I could have come up with!

KennaKat caught me taking a picture of her animals and once I was done, she proceeded to pick up each one, kiss it, and say Good job!

KennaKat was named after my favorite doll when I was younger.  Maybe one day she'll name her own "doll" after a favorite toy that she played with.  Who knows!

The Help

Sunday evening was spent with a lovely bunch of ladies.

We went to see The Help.

I think that it was completely wonderful.
The best all around movie that I've seen in a long time.

There was seriousness, tears, and tons of laughing...
everything that a proper chick flick should have.

The theater was incredibly packed and it was a matinee.

Everyone clapped when it was over...it was that good.

I was hoping to read the book before seeing the movie, but that didn't quite work out.

You see, Costco is currently selling the book, so the other week, I contemplated buying it.

But I didn't need to add to my list of non grocery purchases, plus, I don't like buying a book unless I know it's going to be awesome, and I just didn't know.  I've had my name on the waiting list at the library for a long time...last week, I was in position 156 and today I'm 127...slowly getting there!

Now that I know how awesome it is, I'll be buying it on my next trip to costco.

After the movie, we went to eat at Geer Street Garden.  

A new restaurant in downtown.

The majority of us ordered the fried chicken plate 

{yes, the movie made us crave it}

I'm happy to report it was delicious!  

The restaurant, like many others in the area, prides itself on using food from local farmers.  The atmosphere was relaxed and even though the wait was long, I had to stay because it smelled so darn good.  I can't wait to go back!

Kindergarten Party

Here's the party wrap up.

I didn't get tons of pictures, but this is basically all that I have.

Enjoy...

Another week

Another week is here and gone before we even realized it...

Monday, I volunteered at the school and helped out during Library time.  Does it mean that I'm a dork if I really enjoy cataloging and putting away books?  Alright, I know I'm a dork, but being a librarian was on my list of things that I wanted to be when I grew up.  After we got home, We had Poppy over for a play-date.  It had been a long time since we got these 2 best friends together and I'm happy to report that they had a blast!

Organic strawberries and whipped cream for dessert.

Playing chefs

Tuesday, was our regularly scheduled library time.  Just 2 more weeks and we'll be losing 3 of our friends and one parent to Kindergarten...so sad!!  {You're going to join us for lunch occasionally, right D??}

Wednesday, I spent lunchtime and beyond in E's class.  I had only planned on lunch duty, but E wouldn't let me leave, so I stayed.  I helped with reading, writing, and center time.

Thursday, KennaKat and I stayed home, relaxed, and played.  I also made a present for C&K, our rising Kindergartners.

Friday, was the dentist event, shopping for presents and cake supplies.  Lunch at Jason's Deli, my favorite.  I baked a Dinosaur cake for JTN for the Kindergartner's party on Saturday...  I love making cakes!

Saturday, it was raining cats and dogs in the morning, and seeing as how we only have walking territory and are down to 1 umbrella {that Nani gave us last week}, we stayed in and I finished decorating J's cake.  The party was originally scheduled to be at a grandparent's pool, but due to the rain, the 3 moms throwing the large party scrambled to find an indoors location that could hold the large crowd.  Before going to the party, we went to a memorial service for a grandmother of a friend that I grew up with.  I think I was 1 when I met that kind and loving family.  We arrived at the party almost an hour after it started and it was in full swing.  There were probably 100 people there.  They rented a bounce house and had the snoball man come and keep us cool (awesome).  When I got to the front of the line he said "Look, it's my regular!  I recognize you and a lot of other people here."  Is it weird that I love being considered a regular? :)

{{I'll include pictures from the event on a separate post.}}

We got home from the party at almost 9 last night, tired and exhausted.  After putting the kids to bed and beginning to relax, I got a text from HC saying "Hey you just won the August giveaway at the stir crazy moms blog! Yay!"  

NO FREAKIN' WAY!!!  I was/am so excited!!!  I've never won anything off of these blog giveaways.  I had actually given up on entering them because of that fact and always being a little sad when I don't see my name in the winners circle.  But this one I couldn't pass up entering in a small comment and hoping that just maybe my name would be chosen.  The Stir crazy mom's blog is a local blog written by a group of moms that explore the area and find local fun things to do with their kids.  And what did I win?  

2 hours of professional cleaning by a local "green" cleaning company!  I'm grinning from ear to ear!  If I have ever needed to win a prize, this is the one that was meant for me.  My house is in desperate need of a thorough cleaning.  I can't wait!!!

So now it's Sunday morning and I'm off to get ready for the meeting.

Have a great day!!!

Dentist Drama

I took KennaKat to the dentist for her last wee little 'sugar bug' filling.  She was the best patient ever... again!  It's pretty ironic because when I started taking the kids to the dentist, I took E to our dentist and he did fine, but I realized that they weren't really 'kid friendly'.  When it became KennaKat's turn to go, I decided to find a pediatric dentist because she is the more 'difficult' {unpredictable} one when it comes to dealing with strangers/doctors/...anyone.  

I hunted and hunted and after finally finding a dentist in town who accepts insurance, I figured we were set.  She did splendidly with her cleanings and Ethylwolfe became the more difficult one.  When it came time to get his filling in the Spring it was a total nightmare.  It involved a gas mask, mummy wrap, screaming, crying, a yelling dentist... a complete nightmare.  The only reason this last filling for him was a success was because I had to fight and put my foot down and demand that he have an after school visit as opposed to 8am causing him to miss school {which he hates doing}and he's just not a morning person.  I got "well ma'am, my 15 years of experience has taught me that young children do better in the morning rather than the afternoon."  I said "I understand that, but your 'experience' should also tell you that no 2 children are alike and what may be common for most children does not make it a fact for all.  And if I, the parent, am telling you that my child will do better in the afternoon, as opposed to the morning where he had a terrible experience, then your ignoring my request is actually setting him up to fail.  On top of that, I promised that he would never have to miss school for a dentist visit again, and I don't break promises."  After stamping her feet and refusing to see him and my threatening to find services else-where, and a nervous staff, she finally agreed to let him be seen by a substitute dentist while she was on vacation.  {By the way, that turned out to be his most successful visit ever, plus there was no gas mask, mummification, missed school, or yelling needed.  In your face "15 years of experience"  I am mama, and I know my son!  Ha!}

back on subject...

When I found out KennaKat had 2 cavities, I got really nervous because I didn't want her good experiences to be ruined by the trauma of drilling and filling etc etc.  I actually put it off for fear of it all.  Well, after this last cleaning, I knew I had to get them taken care of before they grew into something worse.

Her first filling went so well, then they told me that we'd have to come back for the other cavity because it was on the other side of her mouth..."oh great", I thought to myself, now they've done it, next time it will be terrible.

The appointment was set, and we arrived 10 minutes early.  After sitting in the waiting room for over 30 minutes, they called us back.  We were in the room for 10 minutes before they came in to get the room ready and give her the numbing gel.  20 minutes goes by and during that time, I hear the dentist go into the room next to ours, give the boy {who arrived 20 minutes after us and got called back at the same time} his shot.  After the 20 minutes is up, she goes back in and starts to work on him.   She tells him that he has 10 cavities and they needed to get started.

I'm thinking "You haven't even given my daughter her shot and we got here before them!".  After the boy was screaming a fit, she left the room and still, no sign of her.  After 10 more minutes, I left the room and started to look for anyone to tell me why we are being ignored.  I bumped into the dentist who had now just finished checking teeth for a room full of kids there for teeth cleanings...who all arrived after me.

I had a really irritated look on my face and she tells me "You're here early!"  {In a fake cheery voice that people give when they know you're mad at them but they try to subdue you} I looked at her and said "We got here 10 minutes early at 8:50, that doesn't give you an excuse to ignore us for an hour!"  and she says "Your appointment isn't until 10..."  (it was just after 10 o'clock at that point).  I said "No, the appointment card said 9 and we got here early like they requested."  She looked at the computer and sure enough, it said 10.  She asked me for said "appointment card" and sure enough, it said 9!!!  {I felt a bit smug at this point and did a little "in your face" mental haha}

I am so glad that I kept the card because the night before, I was weeding through my calendar book and threw away about 10 old appointment cards from the past year, looked at the card for the next day, almost threw it away but decided, eh, why not keep it.

Looking at the card, she looked stupefied, and then proceeded to leave the room and yell at the staff who scheduled me.  After 10 more minutes, she pokes her head in and says "Yeah, they wrote the wrong time down on the card, your appointment was for 10." and leaves.

{Where's my apology???}

5 minutes later, she brings in her helper and they finally gave KennaKat her shot.  They left again, without saying anything to me.  I then heard her in the other room dealing with the screaming boy as she begins to work on him.  Saying that they will only do 4 fillings today.

I feel the blood begin to boil inside of me.  Upset because we didn't get an apology, hungry from not having time to eat breakfast as we rushed to get there early, and infuriated at the thought that after realizing their mistake, she went back to the other patient.  But mostly I was annoyed because KennaKat is still sitting there, getting restless, and I'm thinking, if she had any possibility of having a successful visit, it's sure to be ruined because they made a 3 year old wait so long.

Much to my delight, in the midst of getting no where with the screaming patient, she decided to stop working and take care of KennaKat.  The drilling and filling and entire event was done in under ~5~ minutes!!!

...It only took almost 2 hours to get less than 5 minutes of dentist time...

KennaKat did wonderfully, thank goodness!  I would have flipped out on them if she hadn't had a successful visit.

After all was done and KennaKat received her prizes, we went to check out.

The girl who scheduled me wrong, was also the girl who checked us out, and checked us in that day.  If I was there over an hour early, why hadn't anyone said anything?  Why did they take us into our room 30 minutes before we were supposed to arrive?

Anyway, I got an irritated half apology about the mix up.  Then she proceeds to tell me that she told me 10 and selected 10, but somehow 9 ended up on the card. {what are you insinuating exactly?}  That wasn't true because when she made this appointment, she told me the available times were for 9 and 10.  I chose 9.  She wrote down 9, I wrote down 9 in my trusty pocket calendar, and she clicked 10 on her computer.  Where's the "I'm sorry, I made a mistake, have your services for free...{yeah, in my dreams}"  Actually, she tried to charge me $50 more than the estimated amount.  I told her no, I paid that..  She looked at her computer and said "but it says (blah blah blah)"  I told her "I don't care what the computer says, obviously people don't always enter what's right, but I do know I have my receipt and I know that I paid that deductible."  So after a few clickety click clicks on her computer I get a "Sure enough, there it is, you paid that, you see, it says it right here"...... I give lots of blank stares to dumb people...  But still, no apology, just a "yeah, the person who entered this in didn't put the information in correctly"  never mind she was the person who did it in the first place.

{Again, Where's my apology???}

This is not the first time that they tried to double charge me for services.  When I took the kids in for teeth cleanings, they told me I owed over $160 for E.  After saying, "no, I paid that months ago, I have my receipt at home" I get another clickety click click and "oh look here it is".... still, no apology, no "oh, you're right, I'm wrong".

Why is it so hard for people to say "I'm wrong", "I'm sorry","my bad".  For myself too, I should be better.  Sometimes a simple "I'm sorry" is just what a person needs to hear, especially when someone knows they are in the wrong but just can't push those words out of their lips.

Pride

I think I'm going to search for a different dentist.  Every visit, I leave annoyed for one reason or another.

Also, I think I should stop blogging at night, I think exhaustion makes me wordy, sorry for another lengthy post, for those of you who made it through the whole post, hopefully things like this will stop happening to me :)

Busy Week and weekend

I've been sooo busy lately.  If it weren't for my little black pocket calendar that I bought for this year, I'd be lost.  I know that I would have missed a dozen events or more.  (Best under $5 purchase ever).  As you know from my long winded loopy rant the other night, I've been busy with school stuff.  

Also dentist visits.  KennaKat got a teeny tiny cavity filled and she was the best.patient.ever.  No whining, no crying, no screaming.  Just complete well behaved good sportiness.

My cute patient

Her prize for being a great patient

Tricia invited us and Nani over for a swim with her and page2.  It was so nice having the pool to ourselves.

Then she treated us to lunch, how fantastic!

Page2 jumping in

By the end of our swimming KennaKat was jumping in without making me catch her.

 KennaKat has been spending lots of time putting together puzzles lately.

Nani brought back a large floor puzzle for Ethylwolfe when she went to the beach a few months ago and KennaKat can put it together in under 5 minutes now.

This Madeline puzzle is just a small one that we just got from Ollies.

I gave her my camera and now we have 10 pictures of this puzzle :)

This weekend was our convention.  There was such a huge turnout.

Sunday the attendance was over 10,000!

49 people were baptised this weekend, including at least 4 from our congregation and an old friend that I grew up with, who has worked hard to make the truth her own.

We're so proud of you April!!!

A blury picture of me and my girl on Saturday

Ethylwolfe and his NonE (his spelling)

I finally hand delivered Tricia's prize!

 E's teacher read the class a book "It's OK to be different" then had the kids paint themselves and say it's ok to be {something about themselves}.

Here is Ethylwolfe's...

Ethylwolfe said "It's ok to be a weirdo" and he told his teacher... "because sometimes I'm weird")
I love it!

 Kris's sister is getting married in less than 2 weeks!

Saturday night, Kris threw her a surprise lingerie shower, and she was actually surprised!

Woohoo!  Everyone had a great time and I couldn't be happier for this happy couple.

I didn't really remember to take pictures for Sunday.

Here are the kids walking around and touching what they aren't supposed to...

And we bumped into KFC and her parents.

B's face cracks me up.  And KFC was upset because a boy hit her.

Not only was she hit, but that terrible crime was committed by a boy...she doesn't like boys :)

K&P joined us at the convention today, along with K's very sweet study.  I'm annoyed that I always forget to take pictures, so I have none to show of their cool African inspired dresses :(

We enjoyed Red Robin for dinner, and now we are home, relaxing from a very busy week and weekend.

Can't sleep...

Why is it that I can never sleep well when I have a big day the next day?

Grrrrr!

All week long, I've been struggling to keep awake past 10/10:30 and now that I have to wake up at 6am, I can't sleep.  The most frustrating part is that I'm completely exhausted, I've been begging for a nap all day, and now that it's time to sleep, yeah, the eyes are wide open.

I haven't done much on blogger land this week.

I'm the class parent in Ethylwolfe's class so I've been busy planning and organizing for all of that.  I love planning and organizing, so I think I'll really enjoy it, but it's time consuming if you want to do it right, and of course I do.  I've made plans and charts and a class calendar, I even had to speak in front of a class full of parents...yikes!  Ok, not really.  18 years of giving talks on stage and even longer knocking on peoples doors has nicked any fear of public speaking out of my system, ok no, that's not true either, I still get nervous when I give talks, like my talk for last week, crazy theme, "why none of the demons are atheists" w/ personal research, I'm thinking "???" ... It took me a long while to come up with an approach that didn't consist of me banging my head on the table!  I'm glad that one is over.  

Alright, getting back on topic, being a class parent will be fun, I look forward to being the first in the know, and pushing the less involved parents to get involved, shall be fun.  I spent most of the day today in E's class.  I took charge of her Art Center and am making sure it is kept well stocked with odds and ends, bits and pieces.  So after doing inventory and taking a group of kids out to do a bit of gardening....not doing that again, so many times they almost whacked each other with the shovels and little fork thingys.  Then we had to pull weeds and that was a bummer, mostly because we had to pull weeds, but also because one of the plants that was growing had tons of little prickles and of course we all got stuck tons of times and the kids weren't happy, shoot, I wasn't happy.  So after gardening, I left hot and sweaty, and purchased tons of supplies for the class and I even got to say "put it on their tab" ~that was cool.  Buying lots of art stuff and not paying a penny.  A girl could get used to that.

I just realized that my last post was my 100th.  I was going to write something fantastic and surprised about how shocked I am that I've already reached my 100th but now it's come and gone, and it went unrecognized, just like the mileage on my car.  I always plan to take a picture or atleast acknowledge when it rolls over 100, 1000, 10000, 100000 but I always catch it right after and it's just no big whoop by then.  Oh well, such is life.

My sweet girl just woke up and came to cuddle so I'm ending this now to enjoy my cuddle and hopefully fall off into dreamland.  

I positively love cuddling my kids :)

This post was a bit random, I'll just blame it on my complete exhaustion and delirium that has set in.  Don't try and have a conversation with me in the foreseeable future, I'll be too exhausted to comprehend words or fathom sentences.

Goodnight and have a great weekend!

swimming

The UnBlogged July

July was a busy month, and I'm proud of how many posts I got around to posting.

Believe it or not, there were still many things that I didn't post at all.

Here are some things I actually have pictures of 

If only I could get into the habit or recording every fun thing with pictures, 

there'd be quite a bit more blog posts for you to read...

{Maybe it's a good thing that I forget to use my camera most of the time}

Shaded park time with our buddies

Snoballs have become our Tuesday routine after lunch and story time

I think this was C&K's first snoball visit

Cars2 and Super8 at the drive-in with Kris and her brother and sister and soon to be, brother in law

We got there early so the kids enjoyed playing and running around on the lawn before the movie started.

Light Saber action

Teeth cleaning for KennaKat at the dentist.

2 Very successful dentist visits for Ethylwolfe.
1 teeth cleaning and 1 tiny cavity filled.
No tears, no drama, just right.

Ice Skating with JTN

Lots of slips and slides for KennaKat

The kids met their cousin B2

Swimming and Dinner @ K&P's place

double vested

Triple Noodles

 We were spoiled with 2 swimming days in a row!

What a great way to spend the last 2 days of summer vacation for Ethylwolfe!

Secret friend handshakes under water

Lots of silly underwater faces

2 cute girls D and K

CannonBalls and swimming for Ethylwolfe

Being a good mommy and helping her baby see out of the window.
This is what she does every time she brings a baby in the car :)

Pretending to be the story man at the library and reading to her babies.

Snoballs and service with P&K

Their second trip to Snoballs with us this month :)

Random picture taken by KennaKat at the snoball place of a passing semi

And that's the rest of our month, that we at least took pictures of.

Can you believe it's August???

3 of us will be turning a year older this month...

Good thing we don't celebrate B-days, or we'd be broke.

{Oh wait, we already are, ha}

Ethylwolfe will be 6, Hubster will be 29 {1 more year to old man status}, and I'll be 27.

I hope this weather eases up on us.

I noticed that for the next 10 days, there will be NO 100+ degree days...

Hopefully they are right.