Frenectomy

Yeah, I didn't know what this was either. But it turns out that my daughter (and several other people in my family) have a double hooky thing on the inside of their bottom lip. It turns out that this causes the gums to recede and needs to be corrected with surgery. So because it was Christmas break, Emily and I headed into the surgeon's office yesterday to get this thing taken care of (mostly because she wouldn't let me just do it with one my scrapbooking scissors). Well, it turns out that it was already starting to make the gums recede, so after she got some laughing gas they did both the gum graft and the frenectomy. Turns out I should have got the laughing gas for when I got the bill! Anyway, Emily is home now, soothing her very sore mouth with a lot of ice cream and pudding. They said it would take three to six weeks for all this to heal. What a way to spend Christmas break. She should start feeling better, just in time to get those braces put on....lucky girl!

Huh....do you think I could make these look like Gingerbread Men?

OK, so last night my children were decorating their Gingerbread houses like they do every year, and I remembered that I had some gingerbread mix in the cupboard from last year. So I mixed it up, and tried to make Gingerbread men. The recipe said what to do if the dough was to moist, but it didn't say what to do if it was to dry. So I couldn't really roll it out, because it was all crumbly. That's not to say it didn't taste good...trust me I checked that out. But when I couldn't roll them out, I tried just flattening some out, thinking that I could maybe whittle out some men after they baked. My husband was not supportive in this effort, by the way, he just wanted to eat gingerbread in any form. Well at least the gingerbread houses turned out....they came in a kit.

Christmas is almost here.....YES!!!!

I love Christmas, and it's almost here!!!! I am so excited, I love Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, Christmas day..I am so ready! Well, I'm pretty ready, I have most of my presents bought (but most are still in the shopping bags, tucked in the corner of my closet, so I need to get those wrapped). I love holiday baking, (well, I have all the ingredients, they're sitting on my kitchen counter, I just need to actually make the cookies). I have finished up with Cub Scouts for 2008 (OK, I just need to get the re-charter finished, signed and turned in). But Church is all squared away, (as soon as I finish narrating the Christmas play on Saturday night, and get the new class bags for 2009 finished, they're sitting in my hallway). So because I have so much extra time I am helping my sister finish one of her projects, she is even more stressed than me!!



Oh, who am I kidding, I need at least another week!!! But Christmas is in 5 days. Do you hear that people???? 5 Days!!!! I have to go, I don't have time to blog.



Merry Christmas!!

Can We Say Multi-plug Outlet?

OK, I am not great at taking Christmas Lights pictures, but here is a picture of my house. The picture really doesn't do it justice, we have a big nativity on the left, four polar bears, a seal, four trees, two big candy canes, a cow, and presents on the right. A few years ago I did not even put out any lights, but the gauntlet was thrown down when my mother made a sarcastic comment about my decorations (or lack thereof) was reminiscent of a certain relative. That was it, I went to Michael's the next day and bought a bunch of lights.

Little did I know how much Scott was going to get into it. He has created a stable for our nativity, a star, organizes all the cords and manages to keep it all from blowing fuses. Some people worry about getting Thanksgiving off, but Scott worries about getting the day after off, because that is the earliest I will allow him to put up the lights. Although this year we were a little off, because the Scout's float (which took first place, thank you very much) borrowed some of our decorations. But we are all back on track now.

Unfortunately, we live a little of the beaten path, so not very many people come to see our lights. I do know, however, that my cousin's handicapped daughter, Holli, makes her parents drive by at least once a night. So if it keeps growing every year, we might get enough lights that you can see us from the highway, 2 miles away, if you build it, they will come!!

Learning to Say No...Thank You

I seem to be suffering from a bit of over-commitment lately. Between family, work, scouts, and church I haven't had a single day off (with the exception of Thanksgiving) for well over a month. So last night I was racing through Erik's spelling words when he asked if I had to go back into town that night. I told him "Yes, unless Emily has decided that she doesn't want to sing in the Christmas Choir." Emily was sitting at the other end of the table, looked up at me with a puzzled expression and said, "I don't want to sing, I thought we were doing this because you really wanted to." With that simple statement the light of epiphany dawned and we just stared at each other for several seconds, until we burst out laughing. Each of us has been enduring this choir because we thought it meant something to the other. So right there we decided to stay home, and decorate our tree as soon as Scott got home. It felt great to drop the weight of that burden and let it go, so I encourage everyone to learn, once in a while, to say, "no...I don't think I will be able to do that right now". It feels great!!

Scouting

For those who have known me any length of time, you probably know my former stance on the Boy Scouts of America. Growing up I felt that this misogynistic, elitist program was at the least outdated. After all I could do anything a scout could do, and I didn't earn a badge! I vowed that any boy of mine would be free from these uniform trappings and their secret language. But what could I do when last year my son brought home a flyer from the cub scout pack that meets at the school, looked at me with those golden-green eyes and said, "But, I really want to be a cub scout Mom." In retrospect, I should have bought him a pony!



Fast forward to this year, and I am now a Bear Den leader, and the committee chair for our pack. I have no idea how this happened! Now I have meetings constantly, I know about badges and rank requirements, I have popcorn stacked in every room of my home, I even know the secret language, such as "roundtable" and "district". And now my life has been consumed with this float. The Grand Junction Parade of Lights is this weekend, it is traditionally the coldest day of the year. We have been working on this float for days. As a result I don't have my house decorated for Christmas, I don't have my Christmas shopping done, I don't have my Dad's tree decorated, and I don't have a single present wrapped! But it will all be worth it after Sunday, because we are going to win the Parade of Lights this year. So wish us luck, and if you're in town
this weekend, go to the Parade of Lights and cheer for entry number 9!

Oh yeah, and I have revised my stance on Scouts.